Lights Up
by LJ Summers
Summary: Final story in the From the Wings AU. While Bella & Edward repair their marriage, a new coven is trying to assume power in the wake of the end of the Volturi. It is up to the Cullens to save humanity. Note: This does get messy...
1. Content Dimension

_**A/N: It's been almost two years since I posted the first story in this series: FROM THE WINGS. Last year, I posted, PLACES, EVERYONE!, followed by THE SURPRISING GIFT, which I wrote for Christmas, 2010. Finally, this "Impromptu" series is coming to an end with LIGHTS UP. **_

_**Summation of the AU to date: E**_**dward wanted, in New Moon, for Bella to have a human life with a human man. In this AU, Bella married Jacob but she and Edward stayed friends and, with Jacob's blessing, visited a few times every year. Jacob imprinted just at their second anniversary and they divorced. Edward took Bella to a "new job" in the Amazon where she was able to regain her equilibrium and restore her heart and happiness in his loving company. He changed her at the end of FTW and they got married. And then the Volturi scattered them. Feeling that it was entirely her fault, Bella came up with a scheme to do away with the Volturi's power to dictate to her family and others like them. Her plan succeeded...but at the cost of damaged relationships with every single member of the Cullen family (with the exception of Jasper). Bella is now seeking to repair these relationships...but she still, as we begin this final story, believes she acted for the best and that the ends justified the means she used, no matter how destructive they were. Still, she and Edward are repairing and renewing their marriage and things are on the upswing.**

_**And so we head into the final act. Lights Up!**_

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><p><em><strong>Chapter One: Content Dimension is what is said and done.<strong>_

**Edward POV**

_Boo! Do you want to listen?_ Bella's mental voice slid clearly through all other influences to capture my full attention.

We had been married for fifteen years and still my Bella surprised me. She had lifted her mental shield for me so often since Christmas that I could not help but be amazed and humbled by her willingness to be so open with me. She smiled, her eyes that beguiling jeweled amber that I appreciated – even though I did sometimes miss the deep brown that her human self had had.

We had already agreed that neither of us were perfect.

"Whom are you going to call?" I inquired as she stood, tiny tortoise-shell phone in her hand. I was not touching her, skin to skin, so our surprising mental connection was not available. The connection we had discovered after her "adventure" in Italy that had required her to stretch herself and her gifts far beyond what anyone would have asked or expected.

"Jacob."

We sighed, having one mind on this subject. My apologies for leaving her after her eighteenth birthday, hers for falling in love in her own way with another. Our explanations on how we felt about her marriage – including her regret and my edged happiness – had been communicated and explained and incorporated.

Still, she wanted to make sure there were no secrets between us – especially with her relationships and dealings with any _male_. The pain I had suffered wrongly thinking she had been unfaithful – for even a short time as immortals count it – was impetus enough for her to make the effort. Her sorrow at causing me such pain was incentive enough for me to allow it.

"No, but thank you. I'll provide a little musical background to your conversation, however," I said, stepping across the living room to the grand piano. A Walter, it was of outstanding quality with a bright treble that suited my recent optimism.

Bella nodded and punched the phone number before reclining in the chaise across the room. She let down her shield as the phone rang in the Black residence in La Push. Images rushed through her mind, seductive, imaginative. At one particular image, my fingers faltered on the keys and my entire body tightened in response. Her lips twitched just as we heard,

"Bella! Hey!"

"I'll get you back for that," I murmured.

_Counting on it_, she thought back to me. "Jacob, hi! How's the family?"

Jacob's voice was a hearty as it had ever been. "Doin' good, Bells. Things are good. I managed to quite phasing, finally. Kendra's relieved." He chuckled and I could hear him. "She said she was feeling like a cougar."

Did people still use that term for an older woman pursuing a younger man? I hadn't heeded the latest slang in a while; Bella and I had taken to sequestering ourselves on the Montana property while the rest of the family aided Carlisle in his quest to construct a new system of accountability for our species.

The mysterious and deadly "Capil Virus" that had apparently had an outbreak six months ago had not been an epidemic at all – it had been vampires cut free from the fear of Volterra. They had acted like small children in a candy store. Instead of decapitating the over-indulgent, Carlisle, Alice and Jasper had met with them, along with the Brazilian illusionist, Zafrina. Between them, the vampires were encouraged to be more discreet with their feeding habits. Carlisle was also quietly encouraging others to consider changing to an animal diet.

The latter was not proving effective, but it was early yet, Jasper reported. "We can hardly expect an entire species to adapt to something so distasteful," he had surmised.

I agreed. "So long as they're discreet...what can we do."

Jasper grinned an evil little grin. "Terrify them."

"The problem," Jake said, sounding more serious, "is that no sooner did I manage to stop phasing than we started seeing vamps."

I swore under my breath and flashed across the room to kneel at Bella's side. "Jacob? It's Edward."

"Oh, hey. Yeah. We've got a problem here, Edward. Why the sudden influx of vampires? I quit phasing, but Leah and Embry are still at it and they've been having a hell of time out there."

I met Bella's eyes with my own. She lifted her brow. "Jake, have you ever had leadership issues with the Quileutes?"

"Duh."

I rolled my eyes. For a man in his mid-thirties, he sounded so immature. "Well that's what happened, Jake." Bella bit her lip. _This is all my fault!_

Oh no. She wasn't going to do _that_ again. "Jacob. A vampire coup, of sorts, was staged in Italy and the result is that some vampires have," gone off the reservation, was what I wanted to say, but that was hardly appropriate. "Have are acting quite overindulgently in their feeding habits."

"Correction: They were acting like that," he shot back. "Leah and Embry have pretty much torched most of them. What I want to know," he continued, acting for all the world as if he had initiated this phone call, "is if we are starting a new vampire epidemic or something."

It wasn't far from the truth, but I didn't want for him to declare – as chief of his people – an all-out war, either. I inhaled deeply, dragging Bella's scent into my lungs. She plowed her fingers through my hair to soothe me. "I think it's getting more controlled, now. A new system of governance is being developed. Tell the Council, if they're worried, that Carlisle Cullen is one of the prevailing leaders."

Silence. "Uh, okay. Sure. Tell him to get a move-on, will ya, Bells? We've only got two wolves here to protect the Rez."

A voice called, "Dad!" and Jacob said his farewells, sounding distracted.

Bella opened her mouth, but I gripped her hands in mine, pushing aside her darkened cell phone. "No, sweetheart. Don't even think it. It is not your fault. And you are not going off on some – solitary crusade to try to fix it, either."

"But, Edward, it is!"

"No," I insisted. "It's not. Those vampires were acting of their own free will. You did not create them. You are not responsible for them." Tension held her rigid, so I tugged her down to rest in the cradle of my lap. We were alone in our subterranean abode and were free to be everything to one another, without restraint. Nuzzling her fragrant, gleaming hair, I sighed a little. "Isabella. Haven't we saved the world enough for one existence? I love you and I haven't had my fill of you yet."

She turned in my embrace until I could feel her lips graze my jaw. "I love you, Edward. I promised. Never again will I leave you." Pulling away, she smiled mischievously up at me. "Distract me?"

Relief cresting in my awareness as she freed her mind for me, I rolled her to the floor and proceeded to ravish my wife, tracing her curves with my fingertips as I covered her mouth with mine.

We had proceeded far enough along that I growled in fury when I heard the thoughts above our heads.

It wasn't our family.

_I am sure this is where Carlisle said the family was._

_I don't see anyone. The scents here are days old. I don't trust those electronic computer gadgets. We should have brought Demetri. Except that he can't find Isabella or anyone she chooses to shield. _

_I could just try the door..._

"Edward?"

"We have company."

Bella squeaked – a charming sound, under different circumstances – and rolled away, gathering her clothes up while she did. Hair swirling around her bare shoulders, she gasped, "Who is it?"

"Felix and Renata."

**VV vv VV**

"Renata, Felix," Bella said, acting the role of hostess as she so seldom had the opportunity to do. "Welcome." Moonlight flooded the common room of the main house, making odd polygons on the floor. The shapes were broken up by the long shadow of the powerful Felix and the smaller, lithe caped shape of Renata. "It is so good to see you under less stressful circumstances." My mate made a small gesture. "Would you like to sit down?"

Renata laughed lightly. "I have heard so much of Carlisle's coven, but I did not realize how dedicated to preserving _humanity_ you truly are." Eyes alight with a playful bemusement, she followed Bella to the sofa, removed her cape and folded it over her lap. Felix shrugged a bit and followed.

_Mind-reader,_ he thought directly at me without betraying himself by a glance, _we have had some news. My mate and I followed Chelsea and her new split-coven to Egypt, if you remember. _

With the barest inclination of my head, I silently wondered if he meant Renata as his mate. _Yes, she is my mate. My partner. We have chosen one another. _I nodded and he continued._ We followed Chelsea and found, well. Oh. _

He realized, his thoughts said, that he could share better by just recollecting what they had seen. While images poured through his purpose-drawn memories, I also heard Bella becoming better acquainted with Renata.

"It's so unusual!" Renata exclaimed. "I have spent centuries protecting one man and now I am mated to a man stronger than any other. I have no need to be so diligent. It has been a holiday, every single day." Her effulgent joy was obvious.

Then two shields then began what humans called "talking shop" – a discussion with someone who had a similar rarity of power. I was pleased for Bella to have this opportunity. But, remembering all that my dearest wife accomplished on her own, I imagined Renata would have a thing or two to learn as well. Content that our women were content and occupied, I immersed my thoughts in Felix's memories and blessed the many tangents a vampire's mind could explore simultaneously.

Chelsea, whom I remembered from Volterran encounters, was shown as meeting with an Ancient Felix's thoughts identified as Amun as well as two younger vampires, Benjamin and Tia. A female was there, too, but she was withdrawn and apparently subservient. Her name was Kebi and she was Amun's mate. The four of them constituted the only vampire coven in Egypt – a sunny place not entirely conducive to vampires, certainly. They lived as nomads in the desert, like Bedouin, hiding from curious eyes and ranging tourists.

"What has you so concerned, Felix?"

Renata and Bella ceased speaking, giving us their full attention. Felix studied me for a moment, and I could see his thoughts go to Chelsea as she bonded different members of the Guard to one another, breaking bonds of others. The differences were obvious in the vampires' facial expressions.

He decided to speak out loud for the benefit of our mates. "She might try to do such a thing with the Egyptian coven, to encourage them to either act together or split up entirely."

"Why would this be a problem?" Bella wondered. I only then noticed we had not yet put on a light in the Main House. Not that it mattered, but Bella's hair did shine better in the light. I withheld a wistful smile. "If she bonds them more closely... Well, they're already a family, right?"

Renata nodded. "They are, but they still act on their own will. Her bonds could make them co-dependent with interlocking wills."

Bella huffed out an audible breath. "Really? She can do that?"

"How do you think she kept Marcus with the Volturi for so long?" Renata asked with a melancholy air. "Really, you did him a great service, Bella. You and all your family."

Looking down, my wife waved the remark away. I wanted to believe that she had seen how problematic the execution of her plan was, no matter its outcome. She knew she had lost the trust of most of our family and she had been working to regain it. However, I knew this wasn't the case.

Meeting my eyes, she let me into her mind. _I knew it wasn't entirely a bad idea, Edward. _

I nodded, sighed, and rose to my feet. "How can we help, Felix?"

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><p><strong>EN: The plan is to post weekly. We'll see how I do, eh?**

**So tell me...have you ever experienced a communication breakdown with someone you love?**


	2. Disconfirmation

I know it's been a while since the last in this series was posted, so I wanted to give a shout out to all those who let me know they were still out there. :) Thanks to **merrygreeneyes, Thats-So-Alex, abbyweyr, Bow to your sensei, Jaymy M, SagaDevotee, Noble Korhedron, robsjenn, katmom, MegsD2, wuogkat mdf, KristinHazzard, Eidelweiss, MissEllen & LadyDragona.**

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><p><em><strong>Chapter Two: Disconfirmation is communication that ignores another.<strong>_

Since Felix and Renata were going to take a trip to Italy to see old friends (and, Felix intimated, to make sure with his own eyes that everyone was safe in the former headquarters of the now-defunct Volturi) Bella and I traveled alone to Cairo. Airline security being what it was, Carlisle had arranged for a quiet airline service that operated from private airfields. I had a pilot's license, but had not flown in some time. I would have to get re-certified on the latest equipment. The jet was designed to look as if it belong to high-finance executives. It is possible that Carlisle actually leased it on occasion to humans, the comfort levels were so extreme. Teak wood accents, memory foam pillows in the narrow closets, leather seats, and a small galley.

Bella was reading Egyptian history, as much as was documented, during the trip. "One, it's fascinating," she had explained. "Two, Amun is ancient, right? So he'll be drawing on all these reference points. We have to know them, too."

I smiled at her now, as she reclined with a laptop angled for the most accessible reading angle, and twisted a lock of her hair around my finger. "What are you learning?"

"That I have missed studying with you," she replied, closing her laptop and turning to face me, half-curled in the seat. Her fingertips were light, skimming my skin as she traced the individual features of my face. "I've missed studying you, too."

Turning my head to caress her fingers with my lips, I wondered, "What have you learned from me?" Granted, my thoughts went to interesting and lascivious places.

She took a measured breath and I felt the concentration she used to allow me access to her thoughts and memories.

I could see... Our early years of marriage and how much we laughed... The strain that appeared in my eyes as she began to keep secrets from me...

_No more_, she reassured me as we flew that day.

I cupped her face in my hand and pressed my forehead to hers._ No more._ That our thoughts could commingle at such times was an amazing gift – still – for both of us.

_But you have to trust me,_ she continued, her eyes open and holding mine through her lashes. _You didn't. If you had, the stress wouldn't have been so bad. _

I broke our contact, a subtle anger fermenting under my surface. As much as we had tried, _this_ was still a sticking point for both of us. "How could I when you told me nothing?"

"I told you nothing because I couldn't accept the risk of Aro finding out."

Her voice was snappish, mine was flat. We were not yet fully on the same page with everything. Purposefully, I took a breath of stale, recycled airplane air. "I know. But now that we don't have Aro to deal with...?"

She sighed and leaned up and in so that our cheeks brushed before she nuzzled me under my ear. "I won't ever have to do that again."

As if that were the cue for the end of this conversation, our lips met, caressed, loved and the thoughts we shared _then_ had absolutely nothing to do with Aro.

**VV vv VV**

Landing in Cairo in the evening was of course the plan. Seeing Demetri with a placard bearing the name _Cullen_ was not. Carlisle said he had made arrangements, but this was not what I had anticipated.

"Demetri."

"Edward. Bella." I remembered his sarcastic aggression and wondered where it went. "I do hope you had a good trip. Relaxing."

"Yes, thank you," Bella replied. "Kind of you to meet us. Did Carlisle send you?"

"As a matter of fact, I was asked to be here by Felix."

We began to move out of the airport, walking at a pace that would not catch any human attention. "Felix?" I wondered, maintaining my calm with some effort. Yes, the enormous warrior had asked for our help, but I could not say that I trusted him without reservation. And, of course, Demetri had been overtly threatening toward my family in the not-too-distant past. His conversation with Jasper was one my brother had shown me – threats against Alice! No, I was not inclined to welcome Demetri's assistance in anything at this juncture.

Still, here we were.

"Yes. He informed me that you wished to be of assistance."

Without asking, I probed his mind. Impatient Amun and his quiet mate. An overly enthusiastic Benjamin with his hands shaping – sand. Odd. And his mate, Tia, laughing and ... another moment I did not need to see. And there was Chelsea and a small, dark-haired fellow that the Tracker's thoughts identified as her mate, Afton. I did not remember seeing him in Volterra. He appeared to be a distant sort of man, judging by his withdrawn expression, however. I did not deem him to be worth worrying about at that time, so I did my best to filter him from my interpretations of Demetri's thoughts.

"Felix said that there is a concern regarding the activities of this coven?" I asked at last. We were driving, now, and the Egyptian roads were not what I was accustomed to back were even worse than Italy's. The only relief, for me, was that I do not speak Arabic: literary or Egyptian. The only "voices" then that I comprehended were those that thought in or were translating to English, French and German. Car fare, the price of hummus, a marital spat...

Demetri made a vague gesture with one hand before replacing it on the steering wheel. "Their hunting practices have been more – aggressive than others'," the Tracker said slowly.

Bella stiffened beside me, and I did not need her to push her shield aside for me to realize she was piling silent_ meae culpae [*] _on her own head. I encompassed one of her hands with both of my own. "It's not your fault," I murmured. "They're an independent coven – you do remember what Carlisle said about them? Demetri, do you have new information?"

We left the boundaries of the city and headed on a flat road into the desert. Darkness settled heavily, here, and I wondered if the Egyptian Coven would be hunting or "at home."

"Demetri," my wife said with a reclusive manner, "are you sure you can find them?" Her fingers pressed mine firmly. "They can't hide from you, can they?"

"No,' the Tracker snapped, "the only shields I know of are you and Renata. Amun's coven is, by and large, not comprised of vampires with extra abilities." His thoughts were smug, thinking of how he had been in the Elite of the Guard. He still considered that with pride. I supposed he always would.

The landscape was dark and empty, but I sent my mind out to seek the mental presences of our unsuspecting hosts. Demetri, sounding smug and justified, murmured, "Ah, there you are," just as he sensed them. His mind's tenor was split between exaltation and worry – an unusual combination and one I've only really grasped utterly at life-changing moments. A man about to propose to a woman feels this way, as do Olympic athletes.

"How does that work?" my ever-curious wife wondered. "Is it like Edward's mind-reading? Do you hear them?"

With a smile, Demetri pulled off the road. Sand scraped under the tires. The moon had not yet risen, but stars were everywhere – especially for our keen eyes – and our vision was not hampered at all as Bella and I followed Demetri's lead to exit the vehicle. "I tend to not so much _hear_ them as _feel_ them," he said at length. "It's an awareness." He began to walk and we went with him; my own ability extended to a little over a mile for people with whom I am not acquainted, so not hearing anyone at the moment was a relief after the chaos of the city. Bella's shield was in operation, so the only thoughts I had in my mind were my own and Demetri's. It was quite restful. The Tracker went on at my wife's silent encouragement. "Each person feels different to me. Not quite a scent or a sound, but a texture of their mind."

"Texture," Bella repeated. I could tell she was trying to make it fit with what she had learned from her _adventures_ of the previous year. Her steps were nearly silent on the shifting sand under our feet. Neither of us were exactly "dressed" for a hike over open, sandy expanses but we persevered. "Do their presences in your mind feel like – like satin? Or tweed? Or denim?"

With a surprised flash of his burgundy gaze, Demetri laughed. "Yes and no. I see it unravel a bit like that, though – oh." He stilled, in the sudden way of our kind. Then, he swore and began to run again.

"What?"

"Gianna."

I saw her in his mind – lovely, as she had been as a human – a bit older, but changed. An immortal. An immortal with a fierce bloodlust.

And then I heard a vampire's focused thoughts, pointed in the direction of a village. I presumed it was Gianna. This presumption was confirmed with Demetri's silent approval and a wish for "good hunting."

I grimaced but was thankful that he did not choose to share his good wishes with us out loud. "Where do you suppose the rest of the coven is, then?" I asked to redirect his thinking. I did not need to see his memories of prior past encounters with the former "receptionist" of Volterra. They were having an extended affair without formal commitment and his thoughts of her involved a great deal of sex. "You can sense them as well?"

"Yes, of course," he snapped, annoyed at being redirected.

I heard them, then, at the outer edges of my thoughts. The landscape was passing leisurely past them, thoughts of blood skirting through their awareness at a leisurely pace. Their mental words were in an ancient dialect, I presumed, that I did not speak, so as to their actual thoughts, I was handicapped.

It was not comfortable, and I reached for Bella's hand in an unspoken need for reassurance. She gave it to me, allowing me into her mind.

_What is it? Your fingers are tense, Edward. _

I shook my head, unable to tell her how unnerving it was, suddenly, to feel a pressure to understand someone's thoughts and be utterly unable to ferret out anything verbal in nature. It was less than a minute, though, before we were able to visually see the two members of the Egyptian Coven.

"Ah..." Demetri breathed. I could see him physically slow down in our light run, absently adjusting his attire. We came to a gradual halt. "Amun. Kebi. Good evening," he called lightly in English.

I heard the abrupt translation of his thoughts as well as those of the strange vampires. The male, Amun, bowed briefly. He was swathed in white, as was his mate. I judged him to be about six feet tall, and nearly skeletal in appearance. He had evidently been changed during a time of famine. A light breeze blew his sunbleached clothing to press tightly against him, outlining long, thin limbs. His face was uncovered, his eyes dark pits in his oddly-hued face. His head was topped with a turban, which struck me as odd, but then I imagined it was something traditional for him.

We immortals tend to hold with personal traditions, even when they cease to have meaning for the society in which we find ourselves.

"Hello, Demetri," the Ancient said, his voice dry and scratchy as the sand that surrounded us. He met my eyes and those of my wife. "Where are Felix and Renata?"

Instead of answering, Demetri bowed in his turn and indicated Bella and myself. "Good evening, Amun. Felix and Renata are in Italy at the moment, but will be rejoining us soon." _A good, vague sort of term, eh Mind-reader? _"Allow me to introduce Edward and Isabella Cullen, from America."

The Ancient's mind skittered over all he knew of the name Cullen and made a disgusted sound with a twisted pair of lips. "Animal drinkers. We have heard of you. This is my mate," he added as an afterthought. "Kebi."

"You're out to hunt?" I asked, not sure if they knew about my ability to read their thoughts. "It's a fine night for it."

Kebi's eyes narrowed as her gaze passed over Bella and me. "Do you limit your hunting to darkness?" she all but hissed. Her thoughts were harsh, edged, and there were memories of ruby-like blood flashing under a bright sun.

"Well, if the area is populated..." Bella said slowly, clearly uncomfortable.

Amun made an impatient gesture with long, thin fingers. "Yes. We have to hide." His thoughts showed images of humans bowing down to him in the sunshine. And these thoughts brought him pleasure. "We have had to for millennia." I saw him force a smile in his mind that eventually reached his face. "We have to thank you, do we not, for ridding our world of the tyrants?" An image of a confrontation with Aro – conducted in Arabic – ensued. Fury sparked in his mind, but he tamped it down and came closer. Kebi followed at a distance of precisely twenty-four inches. "We have heard that Isabella Cullen brought down the Volturi."

"No," my wife demurred as Amun's thoughts ran immediately to an imagined battle, featuring my wife as the lead, ripping off Aro's head with a maniacal smile. That was not what had happened, but it was what he chose to imagine. Bella leaned in more closely to me, her arm twining with mine. "I just wanted our family to be able to live as they wanted."

"That is the very least any of us should have." Amun's expression relaxed. "We thank you. Being able to hunt and travel without fear is something I have wanted for far longer than you will ever know." Briefly, he imagined my mate as living in a time far distant, in the past, dressed as he had been as a human. Transparent cloth, eyes framed in kohl to make them appear larger...

Anger at his presumption warred with a sharp stab of appreciation. Bella would have been magnificent in any era.

"I agree," she said softly to the Egyptian. "Thank you." _See? It was not that bad, seen by others, either, she shot to me._

I managed, somehow, not to roll my eyes.

"We do not have many animals for you to hunt, out here," Amun said, seeming to accept our chosen diet without such a heavy tinge of irritation. "But we invite you to return with us to our – our abode," a sumptuous tent in his thoughts "if you wish, after we are sated."

Demetri nodded. "Thank you."

Then, the earth rumbled and Bella and I both gasped. "Earthquake!" she rasped, latching on to me like a monkey might. Her breath came quickly and I heard a rampant chaos in her mind, fear of falling houses and a childish perspective of being told to stay in a doorframe... "I hate earthquakes!"

Wrapping my arm around her as the trembling subsided, I was going to soothe her, but Amun and Demetri's open laughter forestalled that. "Nothing to be afraid of, Bella," the Tracker assured us. "It's just Benjamin sending us a greeting."

"What?"

The Ancient and his mate shared a look. "He is my creation. He can move the earth under our feet and bring water from the ground. He finds it amusing."

As if on cue, another brief rumbling of the earth reached our feet and I tried not to look as dismayed as I felt.

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><p><strong>[*] <em>meae culpae<em>** = pl. _mea culpa_, Latin for "my fault." Latin assist credit to **Raum**.

**How do you feel about earthquakes? I grew up in earthquake country and they don't bother me, particularly...what about you? Any natural disasters that freak you out?**


	3. Confirmation Bias

**A/N: Most humble apologies for the huge delay. _Lights Up_ is a story that, oddly enough, requires a lot of my synapses and I wanted all of them firing as I wrote. And now we continue.**

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><p><em><strong>Chapter Three: <strong>__**Confirmation Bias is having made a decision in order to confirm one's own hypothesis.**_

"Edward Cullen. Isabella. So nice to see you."

Amun and his mate were disgruntled, I could read in their minds. "Chelsea. I thought you went hunting with Gianna."

_Edward! She is dangerous. Renata said so, remember? I am shielding you! _ Bella's thoughts were layered with tension.

I couldn't answer her inaudibly without being obvious about it, so I sighed to myself and nodded, rubbing her fingers with my own. I could hear no one's thoughts now, but my ability to comprehend body language had improved since my marriage, so I studied Chelsea carefully.

Her gaze darted back and forth, and I sensed she was analyzing relationships and bonds. I only wished I could hear her! I slid my hand from Bella's, silently willing her to _unshield_ me so I could analyze Chelsea in her turn.

"Well," Chelsea said at length, "Gianna is perfectly capable of handling herself these days..." She smiled knowingly at Demetri and I had to _wonder_ what was going on, there. "Benjamin and Tia had planned on accompanying her as well."

Bella tossed her head. "Oh, is that what he was doing?"

Chelsea met Bella's question with a flat expression and derisive tone. "I am not a mind-reader," she said, apparently not wanting to continue a pretense at politeness. "Nor a shield. I can tell you the bonds of everyone, but I would not presume to know their minds otherwise." With lifted brows, she twisted her lips. "I can tell you that the bonds of the Egyptian Coven are strong."

I was sure they were. Something was striking me as odd about this situation, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it – in a physical or mental sense. As Bella was clearly not heeding my unexpressed wishes for a freedom of hearing the minds of the others – and I was reluctant to point out that her shield was boldly protecting the pair of us – I held my peace.

**VV vv VV**

"Bella, I cannot be shielded at this point," I murmured in my mate's ear while we walked at some little distance from the others just before dawn touched the sky. With crimson-eyed satiation, the Egyptians as well as the transplanted Volterrans had finished their hunting for the night and were enjoying themselves with a far-too-familiar bout of post-hunt mating.

I was tempted to skip this conversation, but I couldn't allow myself the immediate gratification of making love with my wife.

_Edward..._ Her thoughts echoed her fears from the earlier meetings and I nodded, understanding the basic instinct to Protect the Mate. _Chelsea works with bonds – I couldn't take the chance she would tamper with ours._

"A bond works two ways, love. She would have had to get to you, too, to affect our love for one another."

Setting her jaw, Bella tilted her head back to look me in the eye. The barest hint of dawn appeared to kiss her hair and dance lightly off her skin. She was magnificent as she continued her silent explanation. _She could have bonded you to – to herself, or Gianna maybe. She could have dissociated you from me. I – I couldn't bear to lose you, Edward._

"But you didn't give me a chance to discover her motivations, my love. You disregarded my wishes, entirely." I took her hands in mine and touched our foreheads together, pushing my own thoughts to her mind. _ It's like you did before – trying to keep all of us safe but not telling me what you were doing. There is no Aro to hide from, Bella_. _I love that you want to protect us and I am thankful that you can. But sometimes, you shouldn't. I have to be able to read her. To read them all._

_But then you are vulnerable! _Her devastation as she said this was profound, striking me in a visceral manner so that I caught my breath.

I dragged myself from her mind and continued to walk with her. "I know. But it's a risk I have to take."

"I don't want you to have to take it."

"Oh, like I haven't had to watch you take risks?" I teased, trying to lighten the mood. Just because I didn't engage in the desire for loving my wife _immediately_ did not mean I didn't wish to do so later.

Her thoughts – still open to me – flew over many, many instances in which she willfully took risks that I did or would have objected to over the past twenty years or so. Contrition and some degree of understanding seeped through her comprehension so that I picked up on them.

With an abrupt jerking of her chin, Bella's mental shield fell back into place and she leaned into me bodily, sighing. "All right. I concede the need to take risks. The ends do justify the means."

"Sometimes," I temporized.

"Sometimes."

**VV vv VV**

It was midday when a small, brightly-smiling vampire ran into the tent. She reminded me a little of my sister Alice. "Welcome to Egypt, Edward and Isabella! We are so pleased you're here!"

With a surprising suddenness, the susurrations of rain surrounded us. Clearly curious, Bella ran to the parting of the tent's sidewall and peered out through what I had thought would be an abrupt desert rainstorm. Rare, but not impossible, certainly.

I saw what it was in the newcomer's mind at the same moment Bella murmured, "Sand." Indeed, sand had risen from the desert floor to shower over our tent and – presumably – the tents of the others.

A chorus of thoughts reached me. _ Oh, Benjamin..._

I smiled at the Egyptian sprite in the tent. "You must be Tia," I said, bowing a little.

Oh, you're good, she thought, still grinning. "I am. And my mate is on his way."

"So we understand." I beckoned to Bella, who clearly fighting not to actively protect me with her shield. Her face was far too smooth and expressionless. "As you know, this is Bella."

Tia flashed to my wife's side, causing Bella's muscles to tighten perceptibly. I silently willed her to relax.

I did not understand Tia's words, but her thoughts were projected clearly even so. She overthrew the Volturi? She is so timid and small! As had been the case with Amun, Tia imagined Bella committing acts of violence in dispatching Aro, Marcus and Caius, little realizing the actual power my wife exerted to make the atmosphere conducive to a coup, rather than a one-woman showdown.

"Tia," Bella said after a too-long moment. "Welcome. I am guessing that your mate is on his way?"

"Here I am!" With laughing exuberance that made him appear nearer sibling than mate to Tia, Benjamin swept into the tent. "So this is Bella, our Redeemer. Our Liberator!" With a flashy bow, he made an obeisance to my wife before doing likewise. "And her mate, the mind-reader and member of the Cullen Coven, Edward. So you have come to see us! It is really too bad," he went on, with Arabic-accented speech, that you did not seek our aid before confronting The Three." He dropped his bright red eyes to look upon the canvas floor of the tent and I could see it in his mind.

His mental path plunged through the skin of the earth, past the shifting sand, through the limestone that would one day give way to sand, and down to the sandstone. He made the molecules shift, adding energy to the atoms so that the ground trembled. "See, with me, the foundation of the city could have been liquified, and they would all have been buried."

Bella cocked her head, bending to kneel on the still-vibrating floor. It was not as frightening as a jolt, perhaps, but the constant discipline Benjamin was exerting at this point intimidated me anyway. "Benjamin," my wife began quietly, "what good would it have done to make the buildings fall on indestructible immortals?"

Ben lifted his head, a grin flashing. His thoughts became dark in contrast. "Why, my good Isabella! I would not trap them merely in crumbling rock! No... If I had been there, the entire Volturi would have been swallowed into the igneous rock of the world. And sealed there."

Bella gasped and rose in a slow, smooth movement to her full height. _Edward! He's – he's crazy!_

I could not answer her, not aloud. "Well, that would have been a permanent solution," I remarked, wanting to buy my mate time to recover herself. "But I would have thought it might be a bit overplayed. Visible." I linked my hand with Bella's and tugged her gently to fit against my side.

Ben and Tia laughed, and I heard laughter surge into the air from all around us as well as the others left their own tents to join us in ours. "Why should we worry about that now?" Tia asked with a light, sparkling voice. "Isabella has made our cares disappear!"

With decorative cushions in hand, the others settled on the floor of the tent I shared with Bella. Their gestures were expansive and condescending as they discussed the changes in their world, now that the Volturi had gone from it.

Unsurprisingly, Bella had only one real concern. "What about the people? The humans? They would have been crushed...!"

"Haven't you heard of a _smorgasbord_, Isabella?" Demetri inquired, a lilt to his voice as he twirled his fingers in Gianna's hair.

The other vampires laughed, but my wife bravely faced them down, though she was by now reclining with me on a pile of silk-edged cushions. "But – but Gianna," she said, her voice tense with frustration, "you were human not too long ago. You have been one of us for only a little while. How can you – _not_ care?"

Gianna, her irises the flaming crimson of the recently-fed, stretched languorously. "Isabella, I know you are not accustomed to drinking from our prey, but they are our prey. Do humans object to harvesting corn or making wine?"

"No, but –"

"It is the same. And now, we can all eat and drink without fear of reprisals," Demetri said in support of his lover.

"To Isabella!" proposed Benjamin, as if offering a toast.

The other all echoed him. "To Isabella!"

My wife fled the tent as if it were aflame.

**VV vv VV**

**Jasper POV**

"You're sure they're out here?" I asked my Alice as we ran over expanses of sand, sand and more sand. "I do _not_ want to run into a coven without someone to vouch for me." She understood that; my scars were warnings to our kind, indicating they needed to be wary of me. It was instinct and I did not take it personally.

With a few changes of clothes – all carefully chosen, of course – in a pack on her back, Alice nodded. The wind played with her hair as we moved through the night, starlight reflecting with a subtle glow on her features. As always, she was beautiful. "I told you, I saw them. They will be in a group of Bedouin tents and we'll smell silk, not sheep. I _saw_ this."

One hundred decisions could be made to change what she had seen, but my mate's percentages were pretty good, so I continued to run. "All right. Well, I do hope that not warning them we were coming was the right thing to do," I continued, more to myself than to Alice. The decision had been made when Alice had foreseen a slaughter at the knowledge that I was arriving.

They were afraid of me. Seemed I had acquired something of a reputation.

Alice stopped all at once before leaping a little in a tiny pirouette. "Oh, Ehhhdwaaaard," she called out loud.

I laughed, guessing that we were within a mile or so of our brother-of-kind. It was far easier for me to imagine the rest of the Cullens as siblings, as opposed to authority figures. I projected my thoughts as well, including a greeting from Felix and Renata, who had wished to be remembered.

The tents appeared on the horizon, unbleached cloth in material, they were square in construction. The wind made ripples in the walls and roof of each tent as we approached. It was a dry wind, reminding me vaguely of my years in the American Southwest.

What I would not give never to remember those years again. At least, in some respects. Other things I absolutely needed to have at my ready use.

In next to no time, Edward and Bella were before us, about fifty yards from the collection of tents. As Alice had said, I smelled silk, not sheep. Just lingering scents of, yes, sex.

But not from Edward or Bella.

I probed them a bit, wondering if my sister was shielding me as she had done before. No, I do not believe she was even shielding herself and I sighed a little. The reactions of our family had been harsh after her adventures in Italy. I, however, was incredibly proud of her. She had learned to be so effective from me.

A teacher appreciates an apt pupil, especially when she goes him one better.

"Surprised?" Alice asked.

Bella smiled wanly. "Yes, but it's good to see you." Her smile for me was a bit brighter and I felt the pulsation of relief come from her. "Both of you." She opened her mouth to say something, but helplessness drifted to me from her and she was silent.

"So what is the situation? Is Chelsea behaving herself?"

"I don't know that Chelsea is the real problem," Edward said, turning to lead us slowly back to the tents. "I am more concerned about Tia and Benjamin."

He and Bella briefed us on the Egyptian Coven, and I felt years of military maneuverings shifting in my mind. Just before we reached the tents, Alice hugged her brother and sister with a burst of camaraderie. "It's so good to see you," Alice whispered. "We've missed you both."

Bella hugged her back and then hugged me. "We've missed you, too."

Edward's suspicion flared brightly over his head for an instant, but he erased it immediately. I knew – because it was my gift, damn it – that Bella loved her mate. I knew it. And I rejoiced in the complete fullness of their bond. But Edward was still insecure and Bella had not helped with how she had arranged things, before. Still, I was fairly certain she wasn't arranging a damn thing at the moment, so I guessed that Edward was harboring trust issues.

I did not wish to play marriage counselor. But I might have to, because the two of them were killing me already and we had just met again. Edward caught my thoughts and grimaced, before visibly reviewing what I had just been thinking. And he relaxed, gratitude pushing to cover the distance between us.

Well. That was something.

"Jasper Whitlock!"

The sudden appearance of a group of eight vampires brought my hackles up, figuratively speaking. Instinct drove me to put my body in front of Alice's, making sure that I was within reach of both Edward and Bella. Immediately, I plotted out patterns of defense, thinking that Edward was a good fighter, my Alice was highly skilled and knowing that Bella could protect herself if she had to...

All of that arced through my mind, lines of sight, lines of attack, pinpointing the most apparently vulnerable in the group before us: the little one who reminded me of Alice. Then Gianna – wild, but not disciplined. Then perhaps the shorter male –

I felt a sudden, quick flash of nothingness. A brief flaring of Bella's shield. It was a silent request from her and I inhaled deeply, taking in the scents of the desert as well as of the eight before me. Of course, Chelsea, Demetri and Gianna were known to me and my body calmed as I registered them.

Having access to everyone's emotions again, I focused on one that was very smug and one that was disdainful.

They came from the same area, where two vampires stood closely together. I did not know either of them and could not distinguish which of them were emoting what.

"I"m Jasper," I said at last, feeling that a week had passed, though it had actually been less than a minute since my name was called. "And this is my mate, Alice. Carlisle Cullen sends his greetings."

"Do not tell us he is trying to take the place of The Three?" snapped the Ancient – I guessed that he was Amun, from all I had heard of him. The feeling of deference reached me from others in the group and I perceived that he was their leader, patriarch or head. "We do not need regulation."

"No, not at all," I said, sensing the general caution the others displayed toward me. My scars had their advantages, even though they were worrisome at times. "He upholds autonomy, but he also seeks to preserve human life."

They all knew this, I was aware, but they still scoffed. Some more loudly than others.

"Why are you here?" This question came from the shorter man. Latent power hovered around him and a certain confidence exuded from him. I could feel it, since that he was addressing me. "I am Benjamin, and this is my mate, Tia," he said, indicating the Alice-like female to his side. "Amun is my sire and I am of his opinion that we need no outside leaders, here."

"Carlisle doesn't want to tell you what to do," Alice inserted, sincerity practically bouncing from her. "He just wants to – to protect the humans and protect our kind, as well."

"Protect our kind?" Demetri sighed and stepped forward. "I know you, Whitlock. Your reputation is extensive."

"It is from the horrors of my time in the Southern Wars that I want to keep us from. We do need to be careful. We have to watch out for one another and keep that from happening again."

Ben smiled broadly and gestured with both arms. "Look around you, then, and be at ease, Jasper Whitlock. Our territory is enormous and we have no need to seek more." A threat of violence came from him with rough edges, unpolished but dangerous. "In fact, we will do just as well if you all left us and returned to the rest of your coven."

Well. That _was_ a line in the sand, wasn't it?


	4. Borgian Working Model

**Chapter Four: Borgian Working Model. The End Justifies the Means: **_**Every prince should desire to be accounted merciful, not cruel... - Niccolo Machiavelli**_

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><p><strong>Jasper POV<strong>

"Well, that is the plan. Eventually," I told Benjamin and the rest. "To return to our coven and live the way we want to live. We really aren't so different from you." _Except that we value humanity to an extent unknown to you..._

A thought flashed through my mind and I shot it to my brother. _Edward? Do they all know exactly how Bella managed in Italy?_

He looked to the left and right with apparent nonchalance – his subtle negative.

_Do not let them know. They know she's a shield, but unless Chelsea really spilled all the beans, they won't know how powerful she is. We need to keep that a secret if we can._

Edward looked up at the sky and back at his wife. So, he understood and would tell Bella. _Good_.

Benjamin smirked. "Well, _you_ are not, Jasper Whitlock Hale Cullen." At my questioning expression, he elaborated. "Word of you has reached even this far. You did not always feel it necessary to abstain from our natural prey."

I clenched my jaw and ignored the venom pooling in my mouth. Alice, dearest of hearts, wrapped her slender arm around one of mine and pressed herself against me. A soothing gesture, it helped my muscles relax. "I did not," I acknowledged, "but I choose to do so now."

Amun made a disgusted sound and the rest of the Egyptians, in their emotions and the subtle posturing of their bodies, made it clear once again that he was their patriarch. Sand shifted under feet, a light breeze blew their scents through the air, passing my head. Edward's posture was tense, but not alarmed; I gathered that he did not hear anything overtly threatening in their thoughts.

Well, good. I did not wish to provoke a fight. Just to try to keep the slaughter to a minimum.

"So why are you still here?" Amun rasped into the restless silence. He radiated resentment.

"Benjamin has indicated you have a vast territory. How far would you say it goes?" I asked in return.

I felt the smug condescension from him before he opened his mouth. "You have seen a map?" At my cautious nod, his lips thinned in a semblance of a smile. "Then you know. As far as Egypt lies, so do we hunt."

Plain speaking. I felt the curiosity pulsing at me from Edward and Bella – Alice's emotions were more abstract, if that made sense. She was pushing her own gift, I could tell. Her focused determination was the same feeling I received from her whenever she was trying too hard to see.

_Edward? Got anything to add?_

My brother trod warily. "Amun. What about the humans? What do you do if they see you? I have seen," Edward continued with a slight declination of his chin that made him look stubborn but also rather like Carlisle, "that you have hunted in the sunlight." Tension came from him in jagged bursts as he worked his way through the minds of the Egyptian coven. Kebi's nostrils flared as if in remembered pleasure in the hunt. "Doesn't this present a problem for you?"

"Why should it?" Amun asked. No defensiveness was present in his demeanor. He was a man confident in his position. "They are humans," he sneered. "Prey."

Demetri spoke up, caution thickening his personal emotive vibe. "Edward. Humans are food. Like, like cattle. We are the superior species. I saw so many – so many bleating, pathetic humans come to Volterra." Gianna growled and he immediately paused to soothe her with a kiss at her temple. She had not been playing – it had irritated her to be referred to in such a way.

_The Tracker had better watch out_, I mused. Edward's shoulders flexed in a way that indicated he was holding in a laugh. But we were not in an amusing place, really, so we partitioned that response within ourselves. It was not a decision to be made consciously – it was just the way we were. "I remember feeling that way," I told the Egyptians in an effort to get this over with so we could go home and not worry that the population of Egypt would be plummeting. "I fed on humans indiscriminately."

"Exactly. So you know." Amun extended a hand. "You could again."

I shook my head. "I can't. I feel them. I know how terrified they are."

"So? They're prey," Tia inserted, sounding incredulous. "Why is this a problem? Surely you do not expect us to all want golden eyes..."

Edward held up his hands for a moment. "No. We are just concerned that there would be repercussions. Humans outnumber us. They could retaliate."

Benjamin grinned maliciously and knelt. In an instant, we all felt the rumblings of the earth. "So? We can, too."

"And then where's your dinner?" Alice asked, sounding far too innocent. "It'll be buried."

"Do you think the humans would fight us for long?" Kebi's question was dry and deceptively soft. "You did not, perhaps, consider all methods of – managing the people you hunted, Empath. There are always ways to manipulate humans into doing what you wish."

Edward's gasp was audible. "No. That's – that's –"

"Prey," Demetri reminded us with a lilt in his voice. "Cows?"

Bella, who had been shielded from me for a bit, had been quiet until that point. Then, she seemed to gather herself before saying, "Cows? They're people, like you used to be."

"We're better than they are, now."

"Don't you think they'll take exception to being treated like – like herd animals?"

Benjamin actually laughed. The sound was rich and full – and I marveled that he could express himself like this just after threatening to trap humans in the earth if they dared to fight for a right to live. "Isabella! You liberated us from that kind of thinking."

"No!"

"Well," he went on, smiling at her in a way I am sure he meant to be charming, because his emotions were edging on persuasive, "not from the thinking, then. But from how we behaved. Truly, we are indebted to you."

"And we're also very content," Chelsea said, twining her body around Afton's. She was flaring with jealousy, her eyes narrowed at my sister. "We do not worry about retaliation. Why should you?"

Alice inhaled sharply just as Bella rose on her toes, her fingers splayed in a sort of aggressive way I had not witnessed in her before. I felt anger, fear, and horror emanate from her.

Ah, hell. _Edward? Don't let her do anything stupid!_

Not being stupid, and now having a much better sense of how strong and capable his wife really was, Edward did not hesitate. "Bella, no," he commanded, his voice firm as his arms encompassed her and he drew her almost inside of himself. Alice gripped my arm in both her hands and I felt as if the air had grown solid with tension.

And we were outnumbered. Significantly.

**VV vv VV**

**Edward POV**

_I didn't mean for that to happen. I didn't. I didn't. I just didn't want to be dictated to, you know?_

_Bella, Bella. _I brought my head down to hers, completely encompassed in her shield. I hated being cut off from everyone, but she needed me. So did Jasper and Alice. I was the only one who could get inside my wife's head and I had to focus on that, trusting in Jasper to keep us safe while I did so. _We know. We have to be calm right now, love. Please, for all of us. _

Abruptly, she nodded. _Yes, sorry. I'm all right now._

And her mind was silent. I understood that to mean that she had withdrawn her shield so I could listen to the others again. Their minds were filled with images of battles and blood and I cringed inwardly to see it all, multiplied and exaggerated.

Keeping her wrapped in my arms as both comfort and safeguard, I lifted my eyes to meet the ruby-tinged ones of the others. They were still as marble statues, tension evident in their thoughts and the cords of their throats. I made the effort to relax my own muscles and felt a wave of calm float over all of us as Jasper did his part. Only Bella did not seem at ease.

"Well," I said, speaking more slowly than usual as I sought to encompass everyone else's thoughts. "I think we worry about retaliation because we live more among humans than you do, on a regular basis."

"You should try it," Kebi suggested. Her thoughts showed images of a time long ago, images wherein she glittered in direct sunlight and held her hand out to a dark man with an awed expression on his face. He knelt before her and she abruptly turned her thoughts to my wife. "You do not understand," Amun's mate continued, seeming as if she were speaking to a little girl. In most ways, Bella would seem almost an infant to one of Kebi's age. "If you were to – yes, that is what we should do."

My mate did not, of course, see the image in Kebi's mind: Bella standing in the sunlight at a ruin, stepping cautiously out of the shade. I saw it, though, and gasped aloud at the audacity. "Kebi..."

"She should. She is young. She has no idea what she is condemning."

"I am not going to drink from humans!" Bella protested. In contrast to the outward force of her words, her body shrank back into mine and I was relieved she was relying on me at that moment.

Kebi whispered to her mate, and though I didn't understand their Egyptian dialect, I did see the images in her mind and they were much as I had just seen a moment prior. Amun nodded and took two strides closer to my wife and me. "Isabella. I would not insist that you do anything you do not wish. But my mate is correct. You have not experienced what we have. We invite you," he went on with a harder tone, "to come to a favorite ruin of ours. In the morning. The humans are there, then, and you will see how we can be treated. How we should be, as the superior race." He smiled then, his eyes alight with something that was supposed to be good will, but I did not trust it.

I glanced to Jasper, who nodded slowly. _He's not feeling malicious. It's as if he wants to give her a present, Edward. A surprise._

Bella hated surprises.

**VV vv VV**

"Edward, this is – surreal," Alice murmured as we ran in the sunlight. Ahead of us were tall pillars of stone, a broken monument to an ancient life spent worshiping ancient gods. We had reached the Temple of Isis, on the Isle of Philae. It was a place to strike awe in any heart – even a dead one, like mine.

Shadows concealed our nature to a degree, but I saw in Amun's mind that he would be "outing" us in a moment. "I know, Alice," I told my sister. I didn't know what to do, so I quickly ran through possibilities in my mind, deciding on courses of action.

My decisions, of course, prompted visions on Alice's part, and both of us cringed or gasped in turn. Bella – annoyed by but used to these interchanges – merely sent me a thought: _Please hurry! I don't want anyone to die!_

If we took the stance that we refused to let the light shine on us in front of the humans, Benjamin threatened – in Alice's vision – to create a minor shaking of the earth, causing yet more ruin among this ancient place of pagan worship. If Bella refused, Chelsea and Afton would drag her into the center an arch, knowing we could not fight for her in front of the others.

If I tried, Tia and Gianna apparently got very _thirsty_.

But if Bella went peaceably, no harm came to the humans at all. Alice's vision went fuzzy though. _Peaceful, but vague_, she thought at me, worrying and even fidgeting, rolling up on her toes and down again.

Jasper covered her shoulders with his hands. _What the hell is going on?_ he wondered. I shook my head at him and he grimaced at me, pushing a narrow, focused band of angry frustration at my chest. It was so hard I could physically feel it. I winced at him. _Hate feeling so damned helpless. Can Bella get herself and Alice out of here? If it all goes to Hell?_

I closed my eyes, seeing the carnage Jasper imagined as possibly happening.

"Edward, Isabella. Come, let me show you around the temple." Amun smiled, and looked strangely peaceful as he offered a hand to my wife. I took her hand from my arm and placed it in his.

Her eyes widened. "Of course. I studied the Temple of Isis on our flight here," my wife began, amazing me with her ability to pretend that suddenly all was well.

I held my breath as Amun and Bella crossed from shadow to sunlight in the presence of living humans. Alice and Jasper gasped, too, and I felt my brother's hand fall heavily on my shoulder, so that he stood between Alice and me. Behind us, as if to prevent a sudden exodus, were the rest. Kebi's mind went to times long past, and I had the sense that she was here as a human. The memories were indistinct but carried the tinge of truth to them. Treasured truth.

The others were focused on Bella.

_Beautiful_, Demetri thought.

And she was. Bella, dressed only in a casual shirt and long trousers, still had her skin exposed and was shining, glittering, sparkling in the sunlight. Tiny rainbows leapt through the air from her skin. Her hair had lush red highlights that gleamed deeply as she walked and talked with the Ancient. Graceful and lovely, my mate captured all eyes, male and female, young and old.

Amun escorted Bella to the steps leading into the larger temple building. He made an expansive gesture at a gathering group of humans.

Alice swore under her breath. Jasper's thoughts echoed his mate's as a young girl, perhaps eight years of age, called, "Isis!" in a high voice and ran to my wife. I focused on her thoughts, the bracelet-images, out of all the other shocked, disbelieving, or worshipful thoughts that swirled through my consciousness. Small hands, offering the bracelet to a goddess.

Bella shook her head. "No, I can't," she said.

"_Itfaddeli_," the girl said.

"Take it," I heard Kebi whisper behind me. Amun thought the same thing – in English, surprising me – and Bella threw down her shield.

_Edward? Help!_

I knew she was in no actual danger, _per se_, so I just nodded, understanding that she was unnerved, but realizing that to refuse could cause the Egyptians to do violence – they were almost planning on it.

"_Shukran_," she told the girl, taking the bracelet. Amun slid it onto her delicate wrist and the girl's thoughts exploded in happiness and amazement as the shining beings accepted her offering.

"They think she's a goddess?" Jasper wondered, sounding amused, incredulous and worried at the same time.

Alice shut her eyes tightly. "This – this could be a problem."

Demetri chortled quietly. _If only Aro could see – No. _

No, indeed.

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><p><em><strong>Itfaddeli - Please take it, Egyptian Arabic (rough translation)<strong>_

_**Shukran - Thank you, Arabic **_

_**Have you ever dealt with a case of extremely mistaken identity?**_


	5. Amun Interlude

**Lights Up 4.5**

**A/N: I live on my laptop. My fanfic lives on my laptop. My laptop has suffered a ! ! ! moment and I am in the process of arranging for data retrieval. My outline and the first part of Chapter Five were on that laptop. Sigh. Since I cannot remember everything that was supposed to happen, I am presenting here for you a surprise moment with Amun. **

**I hope to be back with the rest of the crew soon! Thanks for reading ~ LJ**

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><p><strong>Amun Interlude<strong>

Of my humanity, I remember little save the reigning pharaoh. His god-name was Sanakht, or Nebka as some insisted later. I don't know how any could forget him. He was powerful beyond reckoning. When he rose, so did the sun itself. Daily, he oversaw the provision of the Kingdom.

Little is known in the history books of today about my human time. I can be forgiven for forgetting it myself.

The only other thing I remember is the _hunger_. I remember because it stayed with me, with the burn we all have upon awakening to our new plane of existence. Hunger and burning and then – blood. Quenching the fire.

I am an Ancient. My sire said he was something new in the world. Something no one had seen. Something rare and powerful. And he proved it to me, making me his companion as we traveled the desert through the times of the pharaohs. Humans stayed clustered in small groups, then, surrounded by animals. Stinking beasts with odors that assaulted my nose. Senses so sharp, it was torture whenever my sire, who called himself Atum after the sun god (for he claimed to be self-created as the god was himself) insisted it was time for a feast.

But in the end, the feasting was wonderful.

We would always arrive with the sun in the morning. The rays caused our skin to glow, then shine and we would be as brilliant as quartz. Our eyes would be black with thirst, and as we both had beards, we looked as gods. The villagers or travelers in caravans would gasp and bow in adoration –

Oh, the adoration. I see them as if it were yesterday, passed through mists of time. I see the wonder in their eyes, the gaping of their lips, and the sweat that would break out along their hair. I hear the tempting thudding of human hearts, pushing blood through their weak and feeble bodies. Ripe, they were all ripe for the taking. And we took, Atum and I. Freely and even with thanks from those we drank from – they delighted in giving themselves to us.

I missed those days. The epochs of time in which I dwelt before the Law.

The Romanians. The Italians. Aro! _Ibn al abha!_ He thought to dictate to us!

Why?

We roamed, certainly, but we did not cause havoc. We were worshiped! I found my Kebi – my mate! – because she was in the act of worshiping me. Pharaoh's daughter. A woman of beauty and power and wealth and she worshiped me!

Because I appeared as a god to her. Yes, I boasted, but I also proved my worth to her. She loved how I was, for her. Strong! Powerful beyond all belief! Kebi worshiped me.

And I worshiped her, even when her father would have bid her marry her cousin. Kebi was worth ten of that spineless creature. I resisted her blood, feeding on others while she watched. She enjoyed that, Kebi did. Enjoyed it with quiet passion.

"I want to be as you are," she whispered to me on the rooftop under the stars.

Her life was powerless. I changed that.

Atum was slain by Aro's brother, Caius. Slain. Because he dared to show himself in the sunlight like any other creature. We are better than the others. We are immortal! Who can keep the sun from us?

So...we lived. Existed. Slinking like snakes in the darkness, daring only to feed with darting hunts that did not "alert" the humans.

Aro – may his Ka wander endlessly – controlled our actions by the threat of his existence. He dared to go to war with us. To war! My coven, by then, had grown large and his was still quite small, but still –

He was wicked. He turned the humans against us. And we lost – lost the beauty of their regard. The rightness of their worship of us.

For over 2600 years, we lived in fear of this happening again. Threats to my growing coven kept us hidden. Once I had changed Benjamin, I did not rile the Italians again. I did not want them to see what I had created.

Aro likes to collect new immortals with special talents.

No longer. Now, thanks to Isabella Cullen, I can roam the sands in the sunlight. I can feel the warmth of the day! I no longer skulk like a lesser creature, no longer flying from shade to shadow. Now, I can walk proudly, as I am meant to do.

Isabella – she is a goddess. An immortal. They may call her a vampire now, but she is a goddess.

I will show this to her. She seeks liberation for our kind, the new Italians have told me. I have shown her how the humans adore us and our race. I will show her the benefits of being out in the daylight – she came with me, surely she values the sun. And she is young, so young. Beautiful, even with strangely gold eyes...

I wonder if she has tasted our natural prey? I wonder if she would try it if it were offered to her by the human itself?

Kebi would not appreciate me trying to enlarge our coven. My mate is possessive and I love her for it. But acquiring a mind-reader and a – a _politician_ as Isabella has shown herself to be would be valuable. The Cullen Coven is large enough to spare one or two, surely.

Perhaps I should persuade my lovely, my Kebi, to speak for us with Isabella. To show her the delights of our way of life, here.

Perhaps Benjamin could work his charm on the coven leader, Carlisle. He is – so neutral. So unwilling to embrace all that we are, is Carlisle. But he wants peace...

And he is not as Aro was. He is not ruthless. He is not surrounded by strength...not while Isabella, Edward, the Warrior and the Seer are here...

I am an immortal. I have lived longer than any vampire extant upon the sands. I will live longer still. And no one will stop me now from living in sun.

No one.

* * *

><p><em>All dates herein acquired from the Twilight Lexicon website. I am indebted to them for their willingness to organize so much data!<em>

_Last minute add: I have re-acquired my outline. :) Should see y'all here next week!_


	6. Relational Dialectics Theory

**A/N: **I know, it's been almost a year and a half since we've seen each other in this fic. Brief summary here, more info (if you're interested) down below.

**Summary: **Final story in the _From the Wings_ AU. After setting up a coup (more or less) to overthrow the Volturi (_Places, Everyone!_), Bella is reunited with Edward and the rest of the Cullens. Her marriage is riddled with trust issues, and every Cullen but Jasper is unhappy with her. She has promised to stay with Edward and not hie off on another personal crusade ever, and is doing her best, but she is having to learn some important truths to repair the damage she wrought in her relationships. MEANWHILE, the destruction of The Three has left a void of authority in the vampire world and Carlisle is one of those seeking to restore order. The Egyptian Coven (Amun, Kebi, Benjamin, Tia) resists this order, for they lived as gods back before Aro & Co. decided to assume authority. They are hunting openly and have claimed all of Egypt as their territory, considering the humans therein to be like cattle. Demetri and Gianna (recently changed) are temporarily joining them, enjoying the freedom of their existence.

Edward and Bella have gone to visit, to determine the magnitude of the Egyptian Coven's danger to humanity as a whole. They greet her like a heroine. Jasper and Alice join them, and the four Cullens are surrounded by the Egyptians while Amun tries to get Bella to embrace the lifestyle of a supposed goddess. He has taken her into the broad light of day and she is called Isis by a local, and given a gift of a bracelet. In front of humans. In the sunshine.

Alice has said, "This will be a problem."

And so we return.

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><p><strong>6. Relational Dialectics Theory<strong>

_**Relationships are "organized around the dynamic interplay of opposing tendencies" - L. Baxter and B. Montgomery**_

**Thanks to TiramiSue84 on Twitter!**

**Edward POV**

Bella looked bewildered, her smile not reaching her eyes as she held her arm up to show off her bracelet. The people visiting the ruins gathered, their thoughts filled with my beautiful wife's skin and how she had accepted the bracelet.

"See?" Amun said, his thoughts glittering with plans and notions of adoration that were entirely self-directed. "They would give you _anything_." His mind turned to feeding and my gut clenched even as venom filled my mouth. His thoughts were strong, the memories they stirred in me, evocative.

"I don't want anything," Bella retorted, still smiling.

Amun beckoned to Kebi, who didn't even bother to disguise her vampire speed. She was at Amun's side in a flare of light, giving rise to a whisper of awed appreciation from the humans. "Of course you do, dear Bella," the woman said, her voice like silk.

The humans turned to Kebi as if she were a magnet and they were iron filings from a school project. "So many!" one of them cried, sounding as if she were in the throes of ecstasy.

"Beautiful children," Amun said, his voice sounding smoother as he reached for one of the humans in the ruins. Sunshine danced all over his features and up and down his mate's bare arms. Bella watched as if she were witnessing a devastating automobile accident. "Come show us."

It happened so quickly. Amun jerked a human female against himself and buried his teeth into her throat. There was no cry, no protest, only a moan as if all the humans were experiencing a peak of sexual satisfaction. With a gritty swirl of sand, the others in the Coven, including Demetri and Gianna, dashed out into the sunlight, hands extended and mouths open in avarice.

Alice gasped and Jasper's thoughts crowded with old memories, dark and bloody.

My wife, horrified, couldn't seem to move from her space on the steps of the most prominent ruin. "Stop!" she shouted, finally finding her voice. "Edward, make them stop!"

The thoughts of all the feeding vampires had held me motionless as well. It still took a considerable act of will to do what I had avoided doing for so many decades. I stepped into the bright light of day at last, though. "Bella!"

Blood. It was everywhere. I could smell its intoxicating fragrance as I plowed my way through the humans. Why were they offering themselves? It was as if they were hypnotized. . .

A thought-pattern, so subtle I didn't recognize it at first, pushed its way into my awareness. The mental voice was Kebi's, but I couldn't distinguish the words. But the images were of blank-faced humans arching their necks in submission. Row upon row of them.

Sickened but curiously fascinated, I caught the thoughts of the humans. No words, but a sound like "Ay-wah."

"Bella!" I called, my voice whispered but reaching her clearly.

She shook herself. "Stop it," she begged, coming to me, but trying to interpose herself between the humans and the vampires.

Gianna, a sloppy drinker, dropped a bled-white human and smiled beatifically. "Oh, Isabella. We don't have to, now. Thank you!"

Her gratitude was sincere and grotesque and Bella looked as if she'd weep. I enfolded my wife in my arms and guided her out of the sun, away from the frenzied vampires.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered over and over. "So sorry."

**VV vv VV**

**Jasper POV**

Only Alice's vibrating tension kept me in place, in the shade of the ruins. Inside myself, I was reeling. The bloodlust was almost enough to knock me to my knees, but I remained upright. I wanted to run. Run into the melee in front of me and partake of the offered blood, a feast I had long denied myself.

But the shame and horror that hit me square in my midsection blunted my thirst. "I'm so sorry. I only wanted to be free," Bella was whispering to Edward.

Now, understand, I admired my sister in a way I have admired few people in the course of my existence. Her plan had flaws, but it was meant for good and she did quite a fascinating job of evading everyone as she executed it. I was impressed. But, it would have served her—and all of us—better if she had considered the long-term ramifications of accomplishing her goal.

"Jas?" Alice asked.

"Why didn't you say something?" I asked, my jaws practically locked together.

"It was only one possibility," she murmured. "And since there's no law, anymore. . ." A sharp-edged wave of annoyance flared from her. "Carlisle will have to be told."

Edward had guided Bella to us by that time. Unshielded as she was, her desperate shame was spiking unevenly, even coming from Edward. He would always, I surmised, take anything she did on his own shoulders. "But what can he do? Send Felix out to muscle the coven?"

The feelings coming from the dwindling number of breathing humans ranged from blank acceptance to rapture. I rolled my shoulders and tried to shake off the pulling in my midsection that said to join the Egyptians and indulge. There was no fear, there. The humans were offering themselves, as sacrifices...

To gods.

"Why won't they _stop_?" Bella said, gasping, her body as curved into Edward's as anatomy allowed. "They don't need to drain so many humans."

"Come, Jasper Whitlock!" Benjamin called. His skin gleamed oddly in the sun, the result of our vampire pallor overlaying his human skin tone. "There are no more repercussions! We can do as we like, now!"

* * *

><p><strong>EN: I know it's short, but the next chapter is already underway. This story is my priority until it finishes up in chapter ten. The Cullens WILL save humanity. :)**

**Really!**

**In other news, I invite you to check out my bio page for links to my website, where I have information on the books I have written. The ones that have been occupying me most are _Éire's Captive Moon_ and _Éire's Viking_. The former is available and the latter is with my pre-reader now. I'll be beginning the final book of my trilogy (9th century historical fiction) as soon as I finish this fic. **

**Thank you all for your patience. ~ LJ**


	7. Relational Dialectics Theory Part Two

**Chapter 7: Relational Dialectics Theory Part Two**

* * *

><p><strong>Benjamin POV<strong>

My sire had shared with me about the days before. The days when he had godlike stature among the mortals. When they had climbed altars to offer themselves to him.

"Benjamin," he had said, the darkness surrounding us like a shield as we approached the human's encampments, "we are not made to submit to others. We are the strongest things on earth, mightier than even the pyramids themselves, for we do not wear away with the rain and wind. We should not bow to anyone."

"But, the Volturi?" I had wondered carefully. "They won't allow us to be known among humans?" I was young and couldn't imagine why this was so.

"Upstarts. They fear the humans."

I watched the slow, sloppy creatures that were our prey as they went in and out of their tents. "They fear them? But they're...ponderous. Stupid."

Amun had sighed. "I know. But there are many of them. And even a herd of cattle can be overwhelming when there are so many moving in one direction."

Many years later, we had heard what happened when our kind got too familiar with humans. Jasper Whitlock was involved then, too, and I was fascinated when he joined us in Egypt after Isabella liberated all of vampire kind.

"You should join us," I called in encouragement when he lingered in the shadows.

I saw his eyes darken but he did not step into the bright warmth of the day. "No, thank you," he answered me, his voice low and hesitant, as if he were fighting with himself.

That was encouraging. "Perhaps another time." With his skills and reputation, there would be no way he could stop us. It was too bad that Kebi's influence didn't extend to our kind.

My mate, Tia, wove through the drained bodies of our prey to wrap her arms around me. "If he doesn't want to, we could find others."

She directed her gaze beyond me to where the Cullens stood, huddled in the shade like mice. I pitied them. They had to break free of the bondage that had held our kind in check for so long. Isabella certainly believed in freedom; she had to. I smiled at her before crossing the courtyard to her and her mate. Tia held my hand the whole time.

"Why do you refrain?" I asked Edward Cullen. I truly didn't understand. "Have you not—"

"I have," he said, his voice sounding like gravel. "But imagine the thoughts that they have, Benjamin," he said, his eyes narrow and direct. "I had to hear them all."

Tia's laugh made me smile. "But Edward, you don't have to hear anything so repulsive when Kebi is with them. It's easy. She makes them enjoy it."

The mind-reader frowned and looked behind us at the bodies that the others were spiriting away. A bit of clean-up would be all that was required. "No. Human life is important."

I sighed and shook my head. "Only to a human." Isabella growled and I started in surprise. "Isabella. Why did you do away with the Volturi if not for freedom?" I truly was confused. If it wasn't for that, then for what?

She shook her head, but her eyes never lifted to mine. "It was for freedom. I wanted us to be able to live as a family again."

"And we want to be able to feed as we wish, under the light of the sun," Tia explained. I drew her in more closely to my side to show my approval of her words. She continued. "You've given us the most wonderful freedom of all, Isabella. Thank you."

Instead of appreciating our gratitude, Isabella seemed as if she had become ill—something of course that never happens to our kind. After a moment, she met my eyes. "I don't suppose you'd consider hunting animals in the sunlight?"

Our laughter, for that _had_ to be a joke, echoed off the ruins.

Isabella turned away, avoiding contact with everyone as she made her way out of the ruins of Isis, to the water's edge. The sun glittered off her skin, sending enticing sparkles into the rich mahogany hues of her hair and I smiled. "Edward, you must see that she is made to shine in the light of day, not hide like a rat in a palace."

He followed his mate with his gaze but answered me. "I want only for her to be safe and happy, the same as you would want for your mate, Benjamin."

I could not argue with him on that point but I did counter with, "She is not looking very happy at the moment."

He sighed but then met my eyes with a determined look. "I know. Excuse me."

**VVvvVV**

**Edward POV**

Aware that the entire Egyptian Coven, not to mention Jasper and Alice, could hear us, I drew near to Bella and pulled her back against my body. Her spine was stiff and I could tell she was practically screaming, inside herself. But I couldn't hear her.

"Bella."

She didn't answer and didn't relax against me. A breeze reached us over the waters of Lake Nasser that separated the isle of Philae from the main body of land. Her mind was closed to me. I tried again. "Bella. Talk to me. What are you thinking?" The refrain of our earliest relationship days.

"I want to stop them," she whispered, her voice barely reaching my ear. "I hate that there's no way to stop them. All those people..."

I slid my arms down hers, my fingertips clinking against the bracelet she had been given. Her body, which had begun to relax a little, froze up once again. "I hate that they gave that to me, but the human who gave it to me—" A dry sob convulsed her body.

"Bella, my love. You had to know there would be repercussions for what you did. Aro—the Volturi—they were the only law we have."

She turned suddenly, a flare of sunlight in the circle of my arms. "I'm so sorry! I didn't think."

As much as I wanted to comfort her, I felt like I had to address the issue directly. Pressing her closely against my body, I bent my head to whisper in her ear, so that no one else, not even Alice, would be able to discern my words. I shielded her from view so that her response would be private as well, insofar as I could make it so. "If you had taken any time at all to consult with us, love, we could have helped mitigate these consequences. You didn't trust us. You didn't trust _me_." And though I had forgiven her, I couldn't say that her lack of trust hadn't hurt. I utterly understood her and her motivations and knew she meant well, but...

Those years had been hell.

"You know why I did what I did," she countered quietly.

"I do. But you can see that, perhaps, you should have thought ahead a little. You're still young in our way of life, love."

She shuddered in my embrace, a sob heaving from her throat. "What can I do to fix this?"

I sighed into her hair before kissing the top of her head. "I don't know. Perhaps we should call Carlisle and see how things stand from his perspective."

"Can't we stop them? Right here in Egypt?"

I shook my head and leaned back a little from her, waiting until she met my gaze. "They want _their_ freedom, too."

"Isabella!" Amun's voice was clear and authoritative. He reached our side in an instant. "I know," he began, sounding condescending but comforting at the same time, "that this was a new experience for you. I would like to invite you to go hunting. Your type of hunting. Though the beauty of the land is in the arid vastness of it all, we do have prey that you and your coven would appreciate. Have you ever tried crocodile?"

Bella blinked and pushed breeze-blown strands of hair from her face. Her bracelet caught in the sun and Amun smiled in a paternal manner while my wife chose her words. "Crocodile?"

"Yes, my dear. There's camel, of course, if you must have land-dwellers, but the crocodile might prove a new taste for you. We could find you a leopard, perhaps. You can now hunt during the day and who would gainsay you?"

Bella shook her head, her gaze moving beyond Amun's austere features to where smoke was rising from the burning bodies of the humans that had died. "I—this is not what I expected," she said at length.

"None of us did, dear Isabella. But you have given us a new opportunity. We intend to make the most of it."

I had to call Carlisle. My phone was out as Amun led Bella back to the gathered vampires.

"Edward, come with us," Alice called. _Give Carlisle a call, yes, but go ahead and hunt before it is dark. Where we'll be won't cause a disruption and we could use the hours of time you'll buy by cooperating. Please, Edward._

I nodded, decided to call Carlisle immediately and heard my sister's gratitude in my mind.

_Edward? I am sorry. You're right. I should have sought your advice at the very least. I am so, so sorry. But I have to do something! Can you help me?_

Hearing Bella's mental voice still sent a jolt of excitement through my body and, as I leapt to catch up with her and Amun, to rejoin the others, I couldn't suppress my smile.

I would talk to Carlisle, hunt with my family, and then we would strategize. Was there any way at all to keep the humans safe around this coven?

"Benjamin." Gianna's voice reached me next and I tuned in to her thoughts. Blood. Waves of it as she and Demetri bathed in it. "We should share this experience with others. Do you think your coven might be willing to travel?"

* * *

><p><strong>EN: It might get a bit ugly here shortly... Just warning you! Thanks for reading. **


	8. Self-Disclosure

**Chapter 8: Self-Disclosure**

* * *

><p><em><strong>Self-disclosure is sharing with someone information which helps him or her understand you. Self-disclosure is most revealing when the sharing is in the present and least revealing when the sharing is about the past. - D. Johnson<strong>_

**Carlisle POV**

"It's Felix, darling," my wife said, sweeping into my temporary offices in Volterra. "He's brought news."

I pinched the bridge of my nose between my fingers before I caught myself and laughed a little. "Send him in."

Esme first darted to my side to cup my face in her hands. "Carlisle... You don't have to do this."

"I do. Who else will, if I don't?"

"I'm not worried about anyone but you, sweetheart."

I took her hands in mine and smiled into her eyes - eyes like golden guineas from my younger years in this life. "My greatest joy is to see you," I said softly.

"Then I'll always be here."

I rose, enfolded her in my embrace, and allowed myself to thoroughly enjoy the soothing peace of her scent as it surrounded me. The days were stressful since I had agreed to be of assistance in Italy; moments like these with my wife were often my only solace.

It lasted only a few moments. I heard shifting of booted feet outside the heavy wooden door. "Felix?"

He entered, nodded at me and all but bowed over my wife's hand. "Mrs. Cullen. Carlisle."

"Esme, please, Felix," my wife said for the forty-fifth time.

Felix's smile was quick and sharp before it disappeared. "Esme. I have news." I gestured for him to continue and he did, not moving from his position three feet inside the room. "There is a rumor that nomads are feasting in Denmark."

The news was far too common. "Repercussions?"

"They're not being very careful, Carlisle." The tall man grimaced, shaking his head. "They're creating newborns."

The discipline of centuries of guarding my tongue was all that kept me from swearing out loud. Bad enough vampires were hunting in the full light of day, but now they were making more...

"What has been the human response?"

Felix frowned and took a moment to study my features. "Well. They have seen many movies and read many books."

Esme pressed her hand on the small of my back and I took comfort from her as I guessed, "Wooden stakes and holy water?"

"Fire," Felix said softly.

At this, I instinctively tucked Esme behind my body. At Felix's lifted brow, I shook my head, feeling foolish. "What is being done?"

Felix shrugged and, at last, moved to cross the room. At the far window, he paused and looked out upon the people. "Though the vampire numbers are increasing, there have been instances where the humans overwhelmed them."

God help me, I sighed in relief. I could not protect the humans, but they could protect themselves. Though it grieved me to hear of such widespread losses, I was thankful that some human lives were not lost through their own ingenuity.

Still, it was frightening. Esme's voice soothed me when she asked, "Do you suppose that these...incidents...will encourage others of our kind to keep a low profile?"

With a small smile, Felix turned to her as she moved to stand at my side. "I believe so, but at what cost?"

Before we could continue this discussion, my phone rang and I excused myself. Esme led Felix from my office to give me a semblance of privacy when I answered Edward's call.

"Son, how are you? How is Egypt?" I inquired. Forms and courtesies must be obeyed. As I did so, I reclaimed my chair and leaned back, hoping that from my son, at any rate, there would be good news. "Did Jasper and Alice make it to you, yet?"

"We're all here and fine, Carlisle. There's been a development. How well do you know Amun and his coven?"

I sprang up from the chair as Edward detailed the god-fantasy that Amun was perpetuating as well as the gift his mate Kebi had manifested. I couldn't sit still during such a recitation.

"And Gianna thinks that the coven should travel, to share Kebi's gift with others." I heard a wind blowing near him and wondered if he was speaking on the run. "She's quite the bloodthirsty newborn."

I nodded, though he couldn't see me. "How do you suppose this could be stopped?"

"How can we?" he shot back, clearly frustrated. "Who has the authority?"

"Well, right now? I might."

My son laughed a little. "Fair enough. But what can you do except send Felix or somebody to threaten this coven? They're very powerful, what with Benjamin's gift to affect the local geology and Kebi's human-mind control."

An idea occurred to me; would it really be so difficult, I wondered? "Can Bella block Kebi's gift from her mind as she did Aro's?"

Edward blew out a breath and I leaned against the wall next to the window where Felix had been earlier. "I'm sure she is thinking of something like that, but Jasper's notion is not to let the Egyptians know how flexible and powerful she has grown with her shield. Carlisle, there has to be a way to contain rogues that doesn't lead to the despotism of the Volturi."

"Ask Jasper for his best ideas, since he knows our resources here as well, and have Alice watch for consequences. And be careful, my son," I added fervently. "Some of the humans have been fighting back."

"I have to get Bella back home," was his first thought.

Despite the situation, I heard myself chuckle. "Do you think she'll stand for that?"

"You have a point. Call me if there are any changes?"

"Of course, son. Of course."

**VVvvVV**

**Jasper POV**

There was a great deal of good to be said for hunting in the daylight. After nigh on two centuries of hiding in the shadows, I supposed I relished being able to run free under the light of the sun, feeling the warmth on my skin and caring little if anyone saw me. My Alice ran with me and we scented them together - a pair of caracals, notable for their high triangular ears with the tufts of fur that sprouted from them. He'd never seen them in person before, but of course he had read up on Egyptian wildlife before traveling here. Not a large cat, but neither were they endangered. This was important to his mate.

Two blurring shapes sped by him. _Edward, you show-off! _

Bella couldn't keep up with her mate, but she tried hard. "Alice, you look like Tinkerbelle!"

Alice laughed and made a rude gesture that still sparkled in the light. "Does that make Jasper Peter Pan?" she asked. "Because you know he hasn't aged in a long time..."

The girls both laughed, the sound remaining in my ears as Alice and I turned to chase our prey.

_Edward? We need to talk about what to do about the Kebi situation._

"I know!" he called back over his shoulder. "After we hunt!"

What would we do about the Kebi situation? I believed that Edward and I could take out Amun and Kebi if we had to — but I hesitated to do that. It smacked too much as if we were trying to take over the ultimate justice for our kind and though I figured we could do that, I didn't want the job. Carlisle had earned the respect of many and right now, everyone was content to have such a peaceful man in Volterra, but...

One couldn't govern a body of bloodthirsty immortals by stern looks and high expectations.

Still, something had to be done. I appreciated Benjamin's logic in terms of hunting our natural prey, but there was something about gluttony that smacked of my decades with Maria and the Southern Wars and I knew beyond a doubt that Amun's coven could instigate a new series of wars.

Speaking of which, we had to find and end Maria. That, I could say for certain.

"Go for the male." Alice pointed as she veered off to the right after the female caracal.

It wasn't much of a meal, but the unique, rich blood of a predator did take the edge off my thirst. As well as strengthen my libido.

**VVvvVV**

**Edward's POV**

"Maria?" Bella bit her lip. She knew of Jasper's hideous experiences in the Southern Vampire Wars, of course. We all did. "But what about Kebi? Edward, we can't let her—"

I held up a hand before drawing her close to me as we walked slowly to rejoin the others after our hunt. The Egyptian Coven invited us back to their tents and, needing to keep an eye on them at present, we had accepted. Still, I was concerned.

"So, will you join us?" Amun asked Jasper within the shade of the tent. Though the sun did feel pleasant, the constant reflections battering our eyes was annoying and the shade was soothing.

My brother, one arm around Alice, shook his head. "Not at present, no."

"Isabella?"

She didn't meet Amun's crimson gaze, but dropped her focus to the bracelet she wore on her arm. "I've not fed from humans. . .since I was a newborn." _Sorry, Edward!_ she thought to me, her memory flashing with visions of chasing the Ticuna down after her change. "I want us all to be free," she went on, and seemed about to say something else when Jasper cut her off.

"We _all_ want us to be free," he said. _Sorry, Edward. I don't want her to inadvertently make policy when we still haven't talked about it. _ I nodded and he continued aloud. "Carlisle Cullen is doing his best to make sure that not only are we free, but that we're safe."

Amun's demeanor became even more haughty. "Safe? From humans?" The Egyptians laughed, as did Gianna, but I noted that Demetri was not so lighthearted. He had more reason to respect the dangers a large number of humans could present.

"Indeed," I said, making sure not to call attention to the former Guard. "They're uniting in defense of their kind."

Kebi smiled and leaned into her mate's side. "Well, they won't when we get there."

We ran with them along the north coast of Africa, easily crossing the Strait of Gibraltar into Spain.

_Edward?_ Bella thought as we had paused to hunt before the crossing, _I can block her gift in her mind. I can do it. I can make partitions in it with my shield, as I did with Aro_.

"Doing so was exhausting," I reminded her, watching my words because Tia and Benjamin were nearby, engaged in their own private post-hunt mating ritual where we were stopping north of Taoutiet el Bioute.

She shrugged. _ I can't stay with her forever though. _

"No. Not even to protect humans."

With a sigh, she wrapped her body around mine as we sat on the cool ground in the wooded area. "There has to be some way." With a quick shift, she moved to straddle my thighs, her hands on either side of my face, expression intent. "I'm sorry. I—I've been listening to everything and thinking, and you and Jasper are right. I should have sought your help, before. I shouldn't have gone off on my own to try to fix things. I—I wasn't seeing the big picture."

Regret blended with my relief as I covered her hands with my own and leaned in to caress her lips with mine. "Forgiven, love. Always. Your love for us, for our family, is so strong. Your ability to protect is highly regarded. But you have to learn to trust."

"I know. I am."

When we kissed again, she opened her mind more fully to me, and we engaged in our own post-hunt mating ritual until I heard Alice's thoughts, heralding their return.

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><p><strong>AN: ACK. lol I posted my notes (MY notes) here before. If you got this early, my apologies. I deleted them and then neglected to hit the save button. I am seriously blushing like Human Bella over here. lol**


	9. Feel Empathetically

_**A/N: Just when you thought it was safe to go to your mailbox…**_

**Long version: **Since the last update of this story, I was offered a publishing contract and have finally finished the final book of the trilogy that was contracted. If you like historical fiction, if you like Vikings, Ireland, all of that, you might consider checking out my profile page for links to my website. I am not fully returning to the realm of writing fic, though. I've got some fics started (truly) in different fandoms (_VIKINGS_ from History Channel, _Pride and Prejudice_, even one for _Terminator_ that just stuck in my head) as well as for _Twilight_ (yep), but I have decided not to post a story until it is written in its entirety so that I don't wind up dropping the ball as happened with *this* story. I have other books in progress that have top claim on my attention. None of them, I swear to you, are fics. I was a novelist before I ever became aware of fan fiction and I will continue as a writer long after I have lost my fanficking passwords, in all likelihood. But here is the last bit of _Lights Up!_ to finish this up for anyone who's still reading. It's been five years since I got my account on FFn and I thought I'd try to get this last stretch done in commemoration or something. Heh.

**TL;DR:** Been busy. Published some books. Still writing fic. Will post stories when they're done. Thanks for reading. :)

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><p><strong>Chapter 9: Feel Empathetically<strong>

Being empathetic is seeing from another person's perspective regardless of your opinion or belief.

**Jasper's POV**

In the end, it came down to technology.

A remarkable thing, I've found in my travels, is that vampires are not, by and large, technologically astute unless they were introduced to this life in the most recent decades. Mass communication, instantaneous communication, sharing information as it happens on a person-to-person basis is largely beyond the more established of our kind.

Once we had crossed the Strait of Gibraltar, and everyone had sated themselves, I felt the general contentment of the Egyptian Coven. Our apparent amenability to moving north to meet with Carlisle in Italy had lulled the rest into a more or less pacific state.

They moved boldly under the sun.

_Edward? I am going to make a detour. Maria. _Briefly, I showed him my plan and he nodded though sheets of trepidation were flaring from him in vibrant intensity.

The sun that shone through a faintly overcast sky—the local marine layer, I gathered—over the city of Tarifa that morning made me nervous, but I wanted to get away from the rest of them so I could communicate in private. Alice stayed with Edward and Bella. If Maria was adverse to my contact, I didn't want her able to track me down and thereby find Alice.

"_¿__Qu__é __pasa, Diego?_" I asked the man I called. Since the bad old days, I hadn't kept in touch with many of the María's cohorts, but this one I had met in other circumstances. He and I were able to get along well enough.

"_El Comandante. Todo est__á__n tan bueno_."

Well, I didn't believe everything was all that peachy in _any_ coven headed by María, but I let him have his illusions.

"I was going to call you," he informed me.

"Oh?"

He then sent me pictures that might have been from a horror movie, if vampires aspired to produce such a genre for themselves. "I don't know where you are right now, Major, but you might want to stay out of Europe."

I told him that I comprehended his concern, but then I asked, "D'you think María might be interested in taking down a small but solid coven?"

Well, Diego swore up a blue streak, but I gave him some details and mentioned that one of the coven in question liked to think he was a god or something.

This piqued Diego's curiosity and interest enough that he told me he'd talk to María and call me back "_m__á__s tarde_."

Then, I began heading north to join Alice. She called, of course, just as I got going.

"I have to say, it's nice to run in the daylight," she said, the sound of her passing shrieking into the handset. "I don't know if anyone is really seeing us as people, but no one's stopping us, either. It's kind of fun."

"You don't sound awfully convinced, sugar."

"Well, Edward's got issues with this, as you know. Bella, though, is more relaxed now that we're on the move. I think she's looking forward to seeing the family."

"I'm considering waiting to hear what is said about my request for assistance," I told my wife. "Spain might be a nice place to wait. D'you think you can persuade the rest to wait here?"

"Just a sec, guys! I'll catch up!" Alice called. Then, the sound of wind ceased and I heard her fastest, highest pitch buzz in my ear. "Are you insane? No. You just some with us. Bella listens to you and she's trying to fix something else she sees as problematic, and you have to be here, Jasper. Or there'll be an earthquake and—"

"All right, all right," I said, trying to be soothing. "I'll find you. Why not cut across the Mediterranean?"

"Benjamin considered it, but Amun wants to strut his stuff overland. Good thing, too. Call Carlisle. Let him know we're coming. I need to catch up."

I did catch up with them all by about midday. Amun and Kebi had halted the group outside of Barcelona, and Gianna . . .

Was thirsty.

"Damn it, you can't bring a newborn to a place like this. It's irresponsible."

Ben laughed and Tia giggled as Gianna returned from a successful hunt. Crimson irises seemed to glow. "She's happy. Cattle, remember?"

While we lingered outside of Barcelona, in a wooded area north of the city, Amun declared, "We should have a dwelling if we are going to stay any length of time. Come, Kebi."

And just like that, they took off through the hills to a small community that boasted a few large homes. We watched, Edward, Bella, Alice, and I as Amun and Kebi led the way into the town in the daylight. Shining, truly, and not seeming to care a whit. Granted, Demetri seemed to be slinking along the edges of the roads, but that was the only hint of caution they displayed.

We were powerless, we of Carlisle's coven. We could only retreat to the hills and decide if we wanted to wait for María, call in Felix, or find some other way to safeguard humanity from the hubris of the Egyptian coven.

Bella's phone chimed with an alert. We heard it in the satchel she wore across her body while she paced between low-branched trees. "It's Jake," she said, checking what kind of message he sent her. And then, my little sister dropped her jaw and just stared.

"What is it, love?" Edward asked, flashing to her side. We all congregated quickly around Bella. "Is something wrong with Jake? Or his imprint or children?"

"Someone saw Amun," she whispered, turning the phone so we could see the image on display. "It's gone viral."

_Aliens, Bells? Really? What the hell is going on? Call me! - Jake_

"What can I possibly tell him?" she asked, her eyes wide. "We have no authority over them, we can't stop them, not without using our gifts and trying to out maneuver them."

I shot her a slanted glance but said nothing. She was coming to the realization that the lack of Law in our world was a Bad Thing. The good of the Cullens was not necessarily good for humanity and even if we weren't of the same species any longer, we all valued human life.

Edward wrapped his arm comfortingly about her shoulders and they exchanged a look that made me think they were thinking hard at one another. I wrapped my Alice up against my body and stared hard into the town. What to tell the Wolves?

A sense of rapt adoration rose from the town. A wave of it, thick with the emotive outpouring of many humans. We ran to the edge of the hill top town and Alice gasped in what sounded like pain.

"Oh, no."

Humans were flocking to the largest of the buildings, expressions worshipful, with murmurs of appreciation and anticipation rising over them like background music.

Edward slid his phone from his pocket. "Carlisle? We have a situation."

I slid mine from mine. "Diego?"

And Bella bit her lip and stared ahead into the town. "Look, over there, someone's seen this, I think. They're coming with fire."

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><p><em>Stay tuned!<em>


	10. Respond Carefully

**Chapter 10: Respond Carefully**

If you consider in advance the impact of your emotions and words, you will create a positive impact on your relationships.

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><p><strong>Edward's POV<strong>

I informed Carlisle of the crisis rapidly developing outside of Barcelona. "And some of the humans have been comparing notes online, Carlisle. Because someone is bringing fire."

Carlisle didn't often curse, for he found the precise use of language to be an art—he instilled that value in me shortly after I was changed. Still, Alice and Bella both looked with surprise at my phone as the patriarch of our family lost his filter and swore loudly enough for us to hear him.

"I'm sorry," he said immediately thereafter.

I couldn't help it, I had to smile. "I know. It's understandable, truly. But we need a plan, Carlisle."

"I should come. But I can't take Esme there if—"

"No!" Alice and Bella shrieked simultaneously. "No, don't. It's dangerous."

"Someone has to stay there, just in case."

"María's coming, too," Jasper said loudly enough for Carlisle to hear.

We all moved out of the trees, standing on the rising hill beyond the village. "What is it?" Carlisle's voice was flat.

The houses in the village were largely constructed of stone, without yards to speak of. The seemed to sit right on the narrow roads. Still, there was a courtyard in the house where Amun's coven had ventured. The humans gathered there, filling up the stone-paved space with its dry masoned border. Clouds shifted high in the sky and pure sunshine poured over the vampires, bringing them to an almost painful display.

"Sun's out," I murmured to Carlisle. "They're out in front of everyone. The humans are into it, except for the two bringing what look like blow torches."

Jasper cut the air with his hand and I told Carlisle I would call him back. "What is it?" I asked my brother.

"Listen!" he hissed. He had assumed a defensive posture. Alice did likewise, knowing that in all things Jasper would only act in her best interest.

The humans spoke in Spanish, their accents relaxed and amazed. "They're shining! How beautiful!"

"Look at the young man. He's so handsome."

"I heard they were from another planet!"

"Exciting! Hey! Take me with you!"

"That girl can probe me anytime," one crass man said. I found his thoughts based on that alone and the images were far from pleasant.

Then, the disruption began.

The torch bearers shoved their way through the rear lines. "We saw them online! They're dangerous! They drink blood!"

Kebi shook her head, but she didn't speak the language of these people so she could only push out her gift. The torchbearers, however, appeared immune. Or too terrified to do anything but fight back.

Kebi was thinking of the humans surrendering to her. Amun, seeing the majority of the upturned faces, glorified them in his mind and—though he wasn't thirsty, truly—lusted for their blood as well as their adoration.

Bella held her breath. "Should I shield them?" she whispered.

"Just you and Alice," I responded.

Jasper concurred, still in his crouch, but added, "You could try shielding Kebi, if you can reach her from here."

I heard my wife inhale at the same time our sister Alice did.

"What are we doing here?"

Gianna, seeing her opportunity slip away from her, lunged. The chaos was immediate. The two with the blow torches shouted, "_Asesina!_"

_Murderer_.

At this cry, the humans tried to turn and run, but the cramped conditions in the courtyard made them act most unfortunately like the cattle that the Egyptians had named them.

The Egyptians' thoughts were shocked, even if I couldn't understand the words as they thought them.

Jasper snorted. "Yeah, they weren't expecting that, Bella. Nice one."

"_¡__Ay__ú__dame, ay__ú__dame!__"_ Their cries for help echoed off the stone walls of the houses.

"We have to stay here," I reminded my wife when it appeared that she was yearning to move down to the town just as the flame-bearers fought through the final tangle of humanity.

"_¡__Vampiresa!_"

"¡_Vampiro!_"

I held my breath, not sure where my loyalty should go. All of their thoughts, the riotous images and the Spanish and Italian I understood competing with the ancient tongues I did not, clashed in my mind. It was difficult to sort out, but my eyes had no difficulty whatsoever.

One of the attackers reached Gianna's dark, swinging hair with his blow torch and in no time at all, she was screaming, the sounds of terror horrific to my ears.

"Gianna!" Demetri tried, his body dashing this way and that to find a way to hold her so that she stopped trying to run from the conflagration on her head, but he was unsuccessful.

"Water!" Alice whispered fiercely. "Get her some water!"

"Hush, Mary Alice," Jasper demanded, still crouched before her. "D'you want them to find us here? We have to think ahead and— Edward. Benjamin. What's he doing?"

Jasper reported a nearly feral need for revenge from sprightly Benjamin and I plunged once again into the element-master's mind. His thoughts were plunging, too, directed to the ground. Through the ground. Down past the level of the nearby Mediterranean Sea. His mental tone was imploring even as it screamed in fury.

The others of his coven retreated as Benjamin worked, and soon, even we on the hill could feel the earth shaking.

"_¿__Terremoto?_" Earthquake?

From a question to a declaration, the word passed from human to human, but it was too late for them to escape. Benjamin's gift had opened the earth under their bodies with a crack that extended for fifty-two feet.

"Ha!" Benjamin's shout could be heard all over, I was sure, so powerful did he sound. "Ha!"

The crack split open with a dry, explosive burst of noise that rumbled deeply in the earth.

Bella cried softly, falling to her knees as Alice embraced her. "Oh, no. Oh, no." _Edward. I am so ashamed. So very ashamed_._ Forgive me. Please forgive me_.

Unable to resist the despair and love in her silent plea, I turned and knelt beside her, drawing her into my arms and holding her close to my silent chest. "Always," I assured her. "Always."

I didn't see Benjamin close the crack he had brought to the Earth's crust, but I heard it.

"They're headed our way, Edward," Jasper informed him. "Do we stall? We could bluff it out, maybe."

Kissing Bella's head, I told him no. "She couldn't, and I have to be with her."

"Is Isabella up there?" Amun's voice reached us from the street far below. "She is welcome to join us. You all are. A hill is a worthy dwelling for such as we. Though, Rome would be better!"

"Stall them," I suggested to Jasper.

"They should be torched," Alice countered. Her tiny body was vibrating in indignation. I'll do it, Edward. I can. They won't catch me.

But what about the others? I decided to ask her. The others who have seen how easily we can be set aflame?

We could hold a global trial. Broadcast it all over the world. Carlisle could try them and show them being punished for their deeds.

And what of the humans?

Our silent conversation came to an end, then. Neither of us knew what to do about humans bent on killing us with the firepower to do so.

"Stall them until we can talk to Carlisle," i said, expanding upon my earlier idea.

"We're coming," Bella called. Do you think Kebi knows what happened? she asked me privately.

I stood and drew her to her feet as well, cupping her face in my hands. "I hope not, but I'm glad you did it, love. I am proud of you."

Her smile was sincere, though edged with regret. "Thank you."

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><p><em><strong>Stay tuned! Next chapter should be up within twenty-four hours…<strong>_


	11. Condemned Isolation

_**A/N:**__ Please accept my apologies for the hideous amount of typos in the prior chapter. I was in a hurry to get it out before I had to run errands that evening, so I didn't even read it through before posting. I'll get back to it and tidy it up eventually. _

_Thanks for reading. :)_

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><p><strong>Chapter 11: Condemned Isolation<strong>

The experience of isolation and aloneness that leaves one feeling shut out of the human community.

**Demetri POV**

I was still in shock when the Cullens joined us in our villa above Barcelona. My infallible memory would never obliterate the horror of watching Gianna's hair burn. I couldn't stop it. I tried, but without burning myself, I couldn't have stopped it.

Perhaps, if I had thought to get water sooner, I might have saved her. But would she have wanted an eternity of scarred baldness? Gianna?

Still, I found myself starting dumbly over the city of Barcelona, ignoring the influx of vampires, as the sun cast the city in orange light. How had the humans known? How had they dared? Perhaps I had lived too long in secret, so long that I had forgotten the old stories. The "myths" passed down and bastardized by humanity had their basis in truth.

Once, vampires had as much to fear from humans as they did from us.

"Demetri?"

Bella Cullen's dulcet tones captured my attention so I turned from my solitary melancholia to meet her eerie golden gaze. "Yes?"

She stood, a vision of discomfort and uncertainty with her hands twisted together and forehead furrowed in concern. The Cullens and their pretenses at humanity. She was the embodiment of all Carlisle sought to do, I guessed, and I could not fault her for it.

"I'm sorry about Gianna. I heard that someone in Denmark put up a video online on how to handle the new 'alien invasion' but it's so much more personal when it's someone you love."

"Love? Gianna?" I tried to play it down. "She was not my _mate_, young Bella. She was an…affectionate attachment." One that I still could see burning before my eyes. "Still, it was hard to witness. For you too, I imagine."

She nodded then stepped very close to me. So close I was briefly concerned about her mate's constant surveillance. "It was. But Demetri," she whispered, her words barely a breath so that no one beyond us could possibly hear unless it was her mate who read her mind. "Demetri, is there any way to reason with them? So that they don't…make themselves a target again? Or you?"

She had a fine point and I acknowledged it with a look. "I am inclined to think that resistance only makes them more determined to see their point through." With a wry look, I added, "Surely you know of a person or two like that?"

Her focus dropped quickly to the tiled floor before returning to my face. "I do. But Amun wants to be _worshiped_."

"And how does that harm you?" I asked, feeling stubborn in my turn. "You don't even partake of our prey."

She pressed her lips together and darted a quick look behind her before continuing at the same micro-volume. "So you think that if they're allowed to, to _court_ that? They might limit their hunts?"

"How can I speak for them, child?" I turned from her at a fourteen degree angle. "I was a member of the Volturi and have no coven alliance at present." She winced. I ignored that, choosing to study Amun's declaiming posture in front of a cold hearth. The room was generous in size within, for all its Old World appeal without. "Carlisle might be able to come to a treaty with them." I slanted a smile to no one in particular. "He is rather fond of those, if I remember correctly."

"I worry about Benjamin more than Amun," she admitted, turning like as I, her words all but silent. "He has such a capacity to harm."

"So. Do. They," I reminded her, Gianna's flaming hair before my eyes. "If you're going to negotiate for a truce with the Egyptians, Bella, consider too the weapons of the humans."

Chelsea sidled up next to me. "Demetri, dear, be a darling and come talk with Afton. I do believe he's feeling homesick."

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><p><strong>Carlisle POV<strong>

Leaving Esme behind was always difficult for me, but this time it was not hard as in prior experiences. Knowing that people who knew what we were and that we could be comparatively easily slain via something as basic as a blow torch made it a pleasure to leave my mate far behind me as I drove into danger.

"We could've just run, Carlisle," Emmett said, beating out a rhythm on his knees with his fingers as we raced toward Spain. "Everyone's doing it!" His grin was filled with a twisted sort of humor.

I smiled. "Yes, but I am rather old fashioned, my son, as you well know."

"I know, Old Man, I know. But you're gonna have to get with the times," he said, sobering into the man who was also a full professor of Physics and other sciences. "We're not _myths_, anymore. People have seen us. They've seen us sparkle in the sunlight and they've seen some of us drinking from humans." His tone was level and calm and I was proud of him. "This might be a good thing, all the way around, but it has some problems. What we have to do is find a way to make being a vampire not about killing humans."

"Give our kind another purpose for existence?" I asked, pondering the matter as I drove.

"Yeah. Maybe emphasize how cool it can be to never have to sleep. Or not having to worry about sunblock ever again. Hey, humans are weird about aging. Remember Bella?"

I left the coastal highway to go north by northwest on the B-20. This would eventually lead me to where Edward had told me the rest of the family as well as the Egyptians were staying. "We could try something like that, but we'd also need to do something about the humans' destructive capacity. You know how well gun control, for example, went over in the United States."

"Harsh penalties for assault? Reciprocity? Venom?" Emmett was a practical man. "It's a serious means of injury if not death, Carlisle. Deterrence would have to be equally as serious. It's a balance."

Within, I recoiled against such strictures. Still, I saw their purpose. "Perhaps some kind of containment. And the criminals could donate blood? We could establish blood banks, perhaps. But no," I said after a moment. "That would lead to a tiered society, and I am not wanting to foster that, either."

"We could take out the Egyptian Coven directly, then. So far, they've been the most blatant on display, feeding in public."

"But is it our place to restrict our kind?" I wondered, half asking Emmett, half puzzling it out myself.

"Humans shouldn't see themselves as a renewable food resource, Carlisle. And we have no right to make them."

By the time we reached the high village, with its quaint architecture and narrow roads, I was ready to discuss options with the family as well as with the remnants of the covens from Volterra and Egypt.

"Carlisle!" Bella ran out of the large home they were all inhabiting for the present, her skin shining in the rising of the new day. "I'm so glad you're here already. María is on her way and she is ready, Jasper says, to make war."

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><p><em><strong>AN: **_Oh she is, is she? But what kind of war? And against whom? What do y'all think of Emmett's ideas? Carlisle's? They're both intelligent men, but this is an entirely unique situation for them. Next chapter will go up on Monday, all things being equal. See you then. :)


	12. Synchronize Cooperatively

**A/N: My thanks to those who have returned to the final story in what amounts to an Impromptu Trilogy (um…more than three stories, but yeah…). Appreciate having you along for the ride. :)**

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><p><strong>Chapter 12: Synchronize Cooperatively<strong>

Cooperative actions provide synchrony and build trusting alliances. They are part of the give and take that empowers strong, enduring relationships.

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><p><strong>Jasper's POV<strong>

Unfamiliar caution sectioned off by slices of triumph flared around María when I met her and three of her latest lieutenants at Barcelona's airport. It was the last flight of the night, but even so they were dressed with long sleeves. María wore a skirt with wicked-heeled boots that gave my mate a spark of appreciation.

"At least she has fashion sense," Alice mused lightly.

We greeted them with feigned smiles; everyone knew the importance of keeping up appearances, even María. After more than a century, she was able to blend in when she chose to do so. I noted that she was not as demanding as she had been, before.

After courtesies, I inquired, "How has the south been, of late?"

"Oh," she said, her voice light as we drove back to the village above Barcelona. The house the Egyptians had commandeered was secure. Like a fortress in the older years of the world, there was the outer wall of the courtyard, lines of sight from the roof, and now we had a rotating watch detail.

Sometimes, all of this felt far too familiar.

"Well, _mijo_," María began again after her voice had trailed away. "There is not as much fighting now as there used to be. But that might change, no?"

I preferred her to call me "my son" to "my love" or "my major" so I ignored the little endearment. "It might, unless we can nip this thing right in the bud."

"I am ready to fight. The humans with their fire, they are gone?"

"Didn't that make the news?" I asked with a glance to my wife as we left Barcelona behind us.

Alice, though she had never before spent time in María's company, was able to speak with her easily enough. Languages were one of her many hobbies. "Look. You are a famous general," she told María, hiding her distaste. María felt nothing but took the words with some caution. "You know how to take territory. What we want to do, here is to, to evict a coven from territory. Perhaps restrict them to another place."

"Or destroy them?" Maria's smile was broad and confident.

"That option has been discussed," I confessed. We started ascending, the long road a ribbon under the wheels of the Mercedes in the dark of night. There were streetlights, but they were few and far between, their illumination limited to the picturesque as opposed to the useful.

"Someone is there," a lieutenant murmured. In the rearview mirror, I saw him jerk his head to point with his long, narrow nose. "He carries a lighter._¿Véa te?_"

"I see," I said. "Alice?"

Alice pursed her lips and cocked her head, the hazy light that leached into the night from the streetlights touching her face. I had to smile; my Alice was so charming when she was thinking hard. "He'll be fine if he's not provoked. I can't see anyone responding to him, even so."

Still, the young man with the short black hair and narrowed gaze studied our car as we swept by him. María hissed, moving to press her face against the glass. Once, that would have meant nothing at this time of night with so little light, but today? Today, the humans were watchful.

I pulled into the garage of our temporary fortress. "Come. We'll introduce you and make plans," I said. Then, I stilled when I felt a pulsation of sensation. Over and over again.

"What is it, _mijo_?" María asked when I froze half in and half out of the car.

"Bella," I whispered.

"Ah, Bella the Destroyer. Well done. I look forward to meeting her," the second lieutenant said. She was tall and slender as a stalk of corn—an image given strength by the shock of cornsilk blond hair on her head. "What is concerning Bella?"

"S. O. S."

Alice squeaked a little. "What? I can't hear a thing."

I made myself move, overcoming the sense of strangeness of having Bella communicate with me thus. "Emotional bursts like Morse Code."

María laughed a little. "Ess oh ess? This is the old signal for danger?"

"For needing help."

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><p><strong>Edward's POV<strong>

We had decided, Bella and I, to vacate the lower floor of the spacious house. It smelled of the humans that had filled its rooms only the day before, but the odors were not noisome. They merely were. And not as hormone-rich as the countless classrooms I had been subject to for so long, so in all, the house was comfortable.

Except for the other tenants.

_Edward? Are they relaxed yet?_ Bella was cradled in my arms, her forehead pressed to mine. To all outward appearances, we would have appeared to just be sitting in silent enjoyment of one another. In truth, we were spying from a slight distance. Carlisle and Emmett were among them, as strong presence, hopefully to encourage sincerity and to combine their powers of observation with mine.

I nodded, able to enjoy and appreciate her unique scent and the texture of her hair against my skin even as I listened to the minds below. _They are_, I thought at her, grateful that she had found a way to bridge our minds through the use of her shield.

_What are they thinking?_

_Amun wants to take over Italy. Ideally, he'd like Benjamin to cause a big enough earthquake to plunge all of us that are there into the earth, where Benjamin would then crush and bury them. Amun is rather enjoying the imagery._

_And Benjamin?_

_He is thinking of water. There are depths of water, he is thinking, that he could draw from. _

_But if he does that, all the humans die!_ Her body stiffened in my arms. I rubbed her back, feeling the contours of her and wishing we could be off by ourselves. I had grown to like the isolation of Montana.

_Edward…_

I could feel the renewed tension in her body, in each of her limbs and in the pressure of her head. Kissing her lightly, I encouraged her to continue.

_They have to, they can't, I mean, Amun's got delusions of grandeur; he's harmless, but Kebi…? And Benjamin? Can we see to it they stay in Egypt, maybe/__  
><em>

_How? _

"I don't know," she whispered out loud, clinging to me with more strength.

Then, I heard him. Pressing my forehead to hers, I invaded her mind. Jasper's here. With María.

We need help, Edward. Can I ask him?

He knows we do, Bella.

But if I ask him in María's presence…?

Downstairs, Tia was already thinking how to have humans lined up for the honor and privilege of feeding our kind. With allure on the left and death by earthquake on the right, what choice would there be?

_Ask him._

Inhaling, Bella rose to her feet and stood, the very image of vampiric concentration, and proceeded to send emotions to our brother.

I had to smile; the message was simple and effective.

The interior garage door burst open, the knob caving in the flimsy drywall with which it connected. "_Saludos_. _Soy María de San Antonio_. Where is Benjamin? I have heard much of him. Introduce yourself, yes?"

Bella and I ran to the upper landing so we could catch a glimpse of Jasper's sire in person. Flanked by two males and one female, the tiny tornado of a woman was dressed in leather and silk, her eyes dark burgundy and sparkling with delight. I plunged into her mind, needing to know what she would do.

All I saw were the images of her imagination as she plotted out the way in which she would eliminate the entire Egyptian Coven.

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><p><em><strong>AN: **__This is coming close to wrapping up! Hang on tight - it's gonna get a little more ugly. See you tomorrow. I think. _


	13. Act Authentically

**Chapter 13: Act Authentically**

You say what you will do, and do what you say. Ask for what you want in all areas of your relationships.

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><p><strong>Emmett<strong>**'****s POV**

"_Saludos_. _Soy María de San Antonio_. Where is Benjamin? I have heard much of him. Introduce yourself, yes?"

The woman knew how to make an entrance, I had to hand it to her. "Saludos," I said in return, flashing her the famous McCarty dimples. "_Soy Emmett de Gatlinburg, Tennessee_." Since I had managed to take everyone a little by surprise—people forget that even big guys can be polyglots—I corralled Benjamin with one arm all friendly-like. "This is Benjamin."

Benjamin did _not_ like being manhandled but without oh, I don't know, shaking the house down around our heads, there wasn't much he could do about it, I imagined. He bowed, but I kept my hand on his scrawny shoulder anyway. "Hello, María. Word reached us even in Egypt about your armies."

The petite Latina preened, her smile flashing bright as she tossed her shining black braid. She scanned the room, and I could see the calculations going on in her mind, almost as she noted where each of us were. That Demetri and Chelsea and Afton were clustered apart from the Egyptians. That Edward and Bella were above us on the landing, and so on. Her smile sharpened.

"The whole of the world has heard of you. Now that the Volturi have been…disbanded, we have much larger territory, don't we?"

That was an alarming observation. _Edward? You on top of this, bro? And baby sis?_

In the way he had, Edward nodded, his gaze touching lightly on Jasper and then Bella as he did so. I got it. Baby Bells had another plan and this time she had worked it out with someone else.

She didn't include me, but I refused to pout about it just then. I'd get her back later, if everything worked out.

"Emmett?" Benjamin squirmed under my hand and tried to step away. "I think my mate needs me." His smile was forced, of course, but the words did get the rest of the Egyptians to gather around me as if I were a magnet and they were iron filings.

_I gotta remember to tell Rosie about that. The McCarty Magnetism is awesome_.

I saw Jasper's mouth twitch and he and María huddled together for about two seconds while the Benjamin's mate and his sire, Amun, confronted me.

"Emmett Cullen," the little lady said, eyes meeting mine, "Please. My mate and I wanted to be alone."

Amun's brow rose in what looked like disdain. "I do not know how you could be so far from _your_ mate, Emmett Cullen. Perhaps your mate _isn't_ your mate at all?"

I growled. Audibly. "My mate is the strongest woman I know. _That's_ why I know she's good where she is."

"Uh oh," Bella said out loud. I had to wonder who was orchestrating this, anyway.

I didn't have to wonder long.

Every head turned toward Bella when she said "Uh oh". Every head save Jasper's. Of course. My brother the tactician had probably worked out a code between himself and Edward and Bella so that they were all prepared to act in sync.

Jasper slung one arm out to hook Benjamin in a quick move that immobilized him due to Jasper's teeth being at the Egyptian's throat. I did what I could by picking up Tia and getting her away from her mate, in case she had some mojo that we didn't know about, yet. Bella had surprised us, too, once upon a time and I was never going to underestimate a woman again.

Tia fought, though. Fought hard with "tooth and claw" like they used to say on those wild animal shows back in the '70's. Lucky for me, mass overpowered energy and I was able to keep her contained until I got further direction. She spit out a bunch of words that I couldn't understand, but I got the idea she wasn't too happy.

Too bad. Her mate wiped out dozens of humans without remorse. There was a balance in the world and it needed to be found.

It came with a huge inrushing of air. At first, I thought Benjamin had found a way to make a tornado indoors, but the sound was from all of us vampires sucking in a breath when Jasper beheaded Benjamin. That screeching sound was repulsive as his neck was torn in two, but it was necessary.

Only Carlisle turned away.

Jasper caught my eye as he slipped a lighter from his pocket. "You have to, Emmett. Can't leave a mate behind."

I knew it. Tia went catatonic when the first plume of smoke curled upward so it felt more like I was dismembering one who had already died more than I was killing her. Still, it wasn't easy. Laying her head next to Benjamin's body…not something I wanted to do again.

Meanwhile, the Latin Wonder and her henchmen—henchpersons?—took on Amun and Kebi, but refrained from setting them on fire immediately. "_Mijo?_ I understand that the Ancient _es inocente, __¿__verdad?_" The tall thin woman who held Amun did so with a distant expression, as if to indicate he was beneath her notice. Amun seemed to think fighting was beneath his dignity.

"Harmless? Him?"

Kebi screamed something that had to be obscene and the man holding her barely spared her a look before he took off her head.

* * *

><p><strong>Carlisle<strong>**'****s POV**

It seemed Jasper had hardly brought his sire into the house than there was a conflagration. To be sure, if a human had been taking note, it would have seemed nearly instantaneous to their eyes.

_Edward?_

My son nodded to me from his position on the upper landing. He had one arm around Bella and seemed poise to move. He nodded again in response to that thought.

Beside me, Chelsea, Afton, Demetri were as statues, their mouths agape in shock. "Carlisle, was that necessary?" Demetri's tone was much firmer than his expression.

I sighed and clapped him on the shoulder. "I am afraid it must have been. If we were not seen to have done something then the humans might have vented their ire on our kind, wherever they were seen."

"And perhaps where we were not seen," Afton added, sounding grim. "Consider that humans as a species are reactionary and slow-witted. They might see a pale person drinking something red in a glass and come after them with a torch."

Amun jerked himself out of the lieutenant's grasp. He was an Ancient, perhaps the most ancient of our kind left on earth, and there was power in that. "All we wanted was to be free to feed as we wished," he stated majestically. He glared up at Bella. "Isn't that what you fought for? When you gave us freedom?"

"I was wrong, Amun," Bella said softly, compassion radiating from her eyes. "I should not have done what I did. Not like that."

Amun met my gaze next. "So. What do you propose, Animal Drinker?" He filled that with as much scorn as anything I'd ever heard. "Caging us, the superior species? Or will we be _allowed_ to drink from, from cattle? Like you? You and your family think you have all the answers."

María swept in front of Amun, acting for all the world like a queen regnant, but turned to address me. "Carlisle Cullen. A war between humans and our kind would be, ah, _u__n desperdicio_."

"A waste? At the least," Jasper agreed.

Once he spoke, María's lieutenants moved. One remained at her side while the other two stood near the door.

Chelsea seemed to be very focused on María, which made me uneasy. _Edward? Is she trying to bond Mar__í__a to her or someone?_

Because, of course, the threat of humanity taking on vampire kind wasn't quite enough for one night.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** Efficient, aren't they?


	14. Assertiveness

**Chapter 14: Assertiveness**

Assertiveness: to persuade or influence others to think or behave in a certain way

* * *

><p><strong>Jasper<strong>**'****s POV**

_Edward! Something__'__s up with Chelsea. She needs to be stopped!_

I felt acute concentration emanating from the former member of the Volturi guard. She wrapped a seemingly casual hand around a lock of her light brown hair and cocked her head a little.

Edward quickly touched his head to Bella's. I understood what that meant and opted then to keep an eye on María and her lieutenants; bonds with them would be the easiest to make or break since they had none with our family and only the sire bond with me.

Then, in moments, Chelsea started to growl, her hands moving to her sides in rigid fists. Nice job, Bella! Edward leapt to the main floor at that juncture, landing right behind Afton and near enough to Demetri to be a threat.

Carlisle still had a hand on the tracker, so that was covered.

I approached Chelsea while Bella kept her brain under wraps. Handy gift, that. "Enough, Chelsea. Messing with our relationship bonds isn't going to happen."

"It's all her fault!" Chelsea said in a growl. "Hers! The shield! She ruined everything!" With barely any warning—the Guard had lifetimes of experience in battle—Chelsea leapt upward toward Bella herself, determination bursting from her in dark, ominous waves.

Edward and I were each on that, though, and he caught one of her arms while I got a leg. Afton moved to free his mate, but Emmett got him down and disarmed before anyone could inhale after Chelsea's attempted leap.

María strode through all of us, her steps confident as she came to stand right in Carlisle's face. "It is you, is it not, who are trying to, to make things right?"

Shame edged with duty came from him when he answered. "I am trying, María, but I do not know how well I will do, with the new developments."

María flashed me a grin over her shoulder but before I could speak, she did again. "You need enforcers. Women and men who will maintain order."

"I do not want to recreate the fear and regimentation of the Volturi," Carlisle stated.

All of us watched the two of them, even Amun who was standing without even trying to escape. His attitude was one of stiff pride. "We should be able to hunt where we want, when we want," he stated with firm conviction. "Humans are cattle, Carlisle."

"Humans are what we all were, once."

María watched them go back and forth and occasionally glanced up to Bella who was now alone on the landing, her concentration tight on the immobilized Chelsea. I sent her a wave of curiosity.

She caught it, smiling faintly in return but shaking her head like Edward did when he didn't want an outsider to know he was answering a question. I had to hand it to Bella; she picked up on some things very well.

Demetri eventually stepped in to the stalemated but civil conversation between María and Carlisle. With a politicians smile, he spread his hands and said, "We all want peace, do we not?"

My sire snorted but nodded, too. "_Claro_. And we want to feed, as the Ancient has said. I am accustomed to fighting for territory, to keeping it, to holding it and even expanding if necessary, am I not, _mijo_?"

"_Claro_," I answered in my turn. "Of course," I added for the non-Spanish proficient. "But peace cannot happen in our world unless there are strong arms to keep that peace. This is true even in human society. Bella's own father was a law enforcement officer, once." I nodded at her and felt the bittersweetness of her memory as she thought of Charlie Swan. "It isn't perfect, but it is a solution."

"Sí. And I can be in charge of such a thing. Law enforcement." María made a sharp gesture and all three of her lieutenants were behind her. "I have an army already. I can enforce the law. And you will see to the words that people read. What is that, Jasper?"

"Propaganda," I supplied. And then I and to smile. "It's not a bad idea, Carlisle."

"But what about Chelsea?"

Bella's question was soft, but we all heard her. "What about me?" the woman demanded.

"I cannot shield you forever."

"And what about me?" Amun demanded into a sudden silence. "You have ended my mate."

_It would be a kindness to end him too, Edward_, I thought at my brother. He shifted his focus to Carlisle for a moment and shook his head.

I sighed. "Carlisle. Amun is not _safe_ since his mate has been killed."

The most pacific vampire in the world opened his mouth, with determination emanating from him. No one was destined to know what he would say, though, because María flashed to Amun's side and ripped off his head without a moment's pause.

"There. No more problem. Now, can we continue?"

* * *

><p><strong>Edward<strong>**'****s POV**

Holding on to Chelsea while she thought all kinds of vile thoughts about my wife would not number among my favorite things. The images the woman had about ripping my Bella apart into shredded vampire bits, the images of setting her aflame, all contributed toward my desire to do nothing so much as coat her in venom and send her off in purple smoke.

I refrained for it would mean a great deal of pain to her mate, who had done nothing.

Eventually, I had to let Chelsea go because Carlisle, Jasper, and María wished to negotiate a settlement, plan a propaganda campaign, and restructure the civilized vampire world. Such a daunting plan required more than an hour, as one might suppose, and we all had to take turns hunting for our own specific prey as the days wore on.

By the time there was a plan that everyone could there could agree upon—as well as calling in other notable coven leaders and a few key nomads from the Americas, Ireland, China, and the Sudan—there had been more confrontations between vampires and humans. Under the light of the sun or in the dark of alleys, these meetings had often been recorded and posted for the world to see.

Panic was beginning to be a tangible thing and there were many media outlets represented on our little hill outside of Barcelona.

Chelsea and Afton, whom we had thought were sufficiently on board with the plans, made a break for it.

"Edward!" Carlisle shouted. "Didn't you hear them?"

Alice shrieked, "I'm sorry! It was sudden!"

Bella cried out her apology, too, though her eyes were black with thirst from not having hunted while keeping her shield around Chelsea so steadily.

They fled into the gathering humans and were taken captive by two men in white coats. The rest of us swarmed into the courtyard for Alice could then see a series of scientific experiments were planned.

The mêlée that ensued was caught on no fewer than nineteen digital media access points. That is, until Carlisle leapt to the balcony on the upper floor. From the courtyard. In the sunlight.

_Edward_, he said silently, _let me know if this meets with too much adversity_.

"I am Carlisle Cullen," he said, his voice carrying over the multitude, borrowing echoes from the nearest buildings. "I am three hundred and eighty-seven years old." At first, there was a loud protestation, but as we all gathered, standing under him with our skin shining so brightly, the crowd quieted. "I have lived in peace with humanity for more than three centuries. I am not even the oldest of us; we have all been largely unnoticed by you in recent times. I am rather sorry that could not continue so that you might all be spared the upheaval of late days."

"Why are you showing yourselves now?" one journalist asked in accented English.

"It is a long story, and I would be happy to share it with you, but not at the moment. Just now, it is important that you know that there will be no more wholesale slaughter of anyone via earthquake. Those who perpetrated that horror have been ended. We seek to live peaceably among you, if we can. We have a council, now, and would meet with the leaders of the nations on earth, to seek an equitable relationship for all of us."

* * *

><p><em>AN: Almost__…__done__…__!_


	15. Acknowledge Generously

**Chapter 15: Acknowledge Generously**

Look for and accentuate the positive qualities in others. Humbly acknowledge the difference that people make to your life. Validate them by expressing your appreciation for their life and their contributions.

* * *

><p><strong>Bella<strong>**'****s POV**

Paris in the fall is amazing. A great balance of sunshine and rain. The climate was welcoming, and the Parisians were, well, _proud_ to be hosting the first ever Vampire-Human Summit. They laid out the red carpet in a big way. No one missed the shapeshifters because we didn't invite them. They remained, as Jasper said, an Ace in the Hole. Jacob, though, was avidly tuned in to all the happenings.

My sister Alice loved the new fashions. Odd, with humans, how fashions are so important. Humans and Alice, anyway. I could still remember what was "in" when Edward changed me almost twenty years before. Alice was really a patroness of haute couture and we all learned more than we ever wanted to know about the latest discoveries in renewable fiber clothing and the most recent definition of miniskirt.

Edward certainly didn't complain. And, I confess, I have grown to appreciate the value in clothes of good fabric that drape instead of hang. I have learned a thing or two.

Alice actually put her designer super-powers to work as Carlisle gathered the intriguing and powerful of our kind to meet with the intriguing and powerful of the humans here in Paris. A traditional spot for treaties, Jasper and Edward claimed.

History was never my strong suit. If it had been, I imagine we'd be in a different situation, now.

Esme poked her head into the room I am sharing with Edward at the hotel. "Bella, we need you. Ready?"

I checked myself quickly in the cheval mirror that was in the corner of the room. My hair was tamed and hung with quiet elegance down my back. The dress I'd chosen to wear was a light golden peach shade that skimmed my body to my knees. Alice had had the pumps dyed to match. My eyes were the brightest gold I'd seen in years. "Ready."

There were humans lurking in some of the door frames as Esme walked me to the meeting place. I would be on the stairs overlooking an area that certainly did not house everyone, but video relay was possible on an individual level and Carlisle did have the vast treasury of Volterra at his disposal. The staff at the hotel did not have a full idea of how well we heard them, so their gossip about us was common knowledge. I knew that some of the staff felt we were actually not vampires, but that this was an elaborate ruse used by some global political conspiracy. Others thought that we should all be offering ourselves sexually because vampires were _always_ into sex, right?

Oddly, only one wanted to be a vampire right now. That might change.

There was a stirring as I reached the top of the curving staircase and I heard my name whispered like sand falling from my fingers to the ground. "Issa-bellahhh."

Edward flashed up the steps to me, the artificial lights glancing only briefly on the exposed skin of his face and hands. "Bella. Ready?"

_I am._

He nodded and Esme offered me a quick, one-armed embrace before she returned to Carlisle's side.

At Carlisle's other side stood three humans, each wearing an earbud for translation services. My job was to shield everyone up here, to make it so that no one could touch them in their minds and hearts. Edward squeezed my hand in encouragement and I stretched my shield out to wrap around the minds of all those who were leading this conference.

"Welcome. _Bienvenue_. _Bienvenidos_…" The greetings took a while, since everyone was speaking at human-speed. Introductions came next, which made me want to duck behind Edward. I was never going to be used to the attention, the awe, the mistrust, all the wonder that seemed to bloom wherever I went since we got to Paris. Vampires were mostly thrilled with me. Humans were mostly freaked out.

I just wished Edward and I could head back to the compound in Montana and do all of this via webcam.

* * *

><p>We had to take breaks for the humans, but most of the business part of the Summit was completed in two days. Ridiculous, but true. I needed to hunt and it was noticed by some of the journalists.<p>

"Wait!" One human male called bravely up to Carlisle. He pointed at me toward the end of the first section of our Summit. "You said, Mr. Cullen, that you didn't need to, er, feed that often but to be wary of black eyes in any kind of…your kind. Her eyes are black already!"

Alarm had spread throughout the humans, and many instantly seemed to erupt in nervous sweat that had the sensitive noses of the vampires scrunching up.

Edward held up one hand. "Don't worry, please. She'll be attending to this soon." He smiled that dazzling smile that had so swept many off their feet over the century of his immortality. "She has a taste for venison."

Nervous laughter rustled through the humans and Carlisle called a break.

"You didn't have to say that," I protested to my husband at vampire speed. "We could have just said I just needed to refresh myself."

"Love, the majority of the humans there were thinking you were going to drink from one of them. Some of the men even hoped you would choose them. The others were afraid for families and coworkers. It may have seemed crass, but I was trying to set them at ease."

"But deer? I don't want that." I never developed a real liking for herbivores.

He chuckled softly and pulled me close to his body as we changed in our room. "But saying you were hunting for something more exotic near Paris, love, could have caused a riot."

"True."

* * *

><p>"And this is María. She will be enforcing the covenants we have made here today. Next to her is Doctor Elias Cohen, who will be monitoring the blood donation system. And next to him is Doctor Binah Tinibu who is working already on wildlife breeding for those of my kind who wish to find a more humane way to exist. And this is Doctor Emmett Cullen, who will be working with his wife and mate, Rosalie Cullen. They are in charge of fire-production regulations. Emmett is a physicist, Rosalie is an engineer and together they will establish…"<p>

At last, thanks were shared all around. All the humans involved took pictures to share with friends and family. The amazement factor was still high and that made Carlisle's job easier; the people were amenable to compromise and restructuring as they saw the supernatural made real in front of their eyes. And vampires were relieved, in large part, not to have to hide, anymore. No longer was a death sentence over their head merely for walking in the sunlight. Codes were established for the creation of newborns, accountability was put forth.

All in all, it had been a productive Summit. But I hated that all of it had happened. I was proud that I had been able to accomplish what I had, with the Volturi, but I wish I had sought help rather than trying to manage it all myself. I did well, but I was too young to fully realize the ramifications of my actions.

Savior? Goddess? Homewrecker? All of the above?

What I really wanted, I knew as Paris emptied of the hundreds who had come, was to be a wife to my husband. To travel the world unafraid. To live and love and laugh with my family in whatever groupings we chose, wherever we chose to live.

Shakespeare, in his play _As You Like It,_ wrote that "all the world is a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays man parts, his acts being seven ages."

It was time for this woman, anyway, to exit for a while. My time on center stage was over. And I was, quite frankly, relieved to turn the lights out.

_**The End**_

* * *

><p><strong>AN: And that****'****s a wrap. I know, there****'****s a lot of questions and all, but I also know that no matter **_**how**_** Bella saw it resolved, the situation would change and adjust with the management structure. No battle plan survives contact with the enemy. Neither does a form of government survive actual implementation intact.**

**Thank you to everyone who has checked back with this story and thanks for everyone who started the _From the Wings_ series from the beginning! :) I****'****m still catching up on reviews. As I mentioned in chapter nine, I do have fics in progress, but I won****'****t post them until they****'****re complete on my end, thus saving everyone stress. **

**Thank you again, all of you. I****'****ve got the best readers in the fandom.**


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